Taking a Scratch at Scrimsaw

A while back I'd seen an artist's work that I was really impressed by. She had incorporated real Ivory into her metal work, and I was intrigued. Knowing the ban on Ivory, I wondered how it could be used. I did some research and found all sorts of interesting things. Did you know that while ivory was outlawed in the 1980's, you can use pre-embargo ivory in things?

So, I searched around for ivory, and finally found some old ivory piano keys for sale. I learned in my research that you can tell if a piano has real ivory by looking for two pieces on top of the keys. There's a strip next to the black keys and then a separate one for where you place your fingers. Fake ivory (plastic) covers the entire key top in an "L".

Once I received my piano keys, I ended up shelving them due to lack of time to piddle with them. I recently pulled them out and wondered what to do. I was afraid to do anything for fear of damaging, thus wasting the ivory. My husband, Chris, told me to go ahead and sacrifice a piece; play with it with the intention of "killing" it. That broke my stalemate and allowed me to work with it.

The most obvious thing was to attempt Scrimshaw. Knowing almost zilch about it, I did what I always do, dove into research. I found out all sorts of interesting things about Scrimshaw, too. Did you know that is one of the very few indigenous American crafts? Practiced for centuries by the Inuit and other native groups along the Northwest Coast, it was adopted by the Yankee whalemen of the early 1800's. The name Scrimshaw roughly means "idle time". That's evidently what sailors had a lot of on the ships, and used what they also had a lot of ... Whale bone. They scratched images onto the bone and then applied ink into the scratches to bring out the image. I found that Scrimshaw became popular because President John F. Kennedy was an avid collector. There are all sorts of interesting things to know. Here is a good source to read more about Scrimshaw's history.

I learned that you can use a pin or an old compass to start, and that's just what I did. It turned out that I even had an ancient bottle of ink buried in a box of art supplies. Of course, the first image I'd attempt would be a horse. The end result is TINY as you can see in the photo below. The sacrifice piece was one of the very narrow strips of the piano ivory; one of the key tops that ran next to the black key (which was probably made of Ebony).


Once I make some more pieces, I'll post the photos here. Hopefully, I'll get some things incorporated in to some jewelry to sell on Etsy.

Heavy Copper Cuff on Etsy

Here is one of my latest postings to Etsy. This piece was started during the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour this past summer. I was set up at the Round Hill Arts Center since my studio isn't finished yet. I had a booth of my jewelry for sale and was doing metal smithing demonstrations.

This was a really nice HEAVY piece of copper that worked perfectly for doing demonstrations of annealing and shaping metal. I kept bending it, re-firing it and just playing with it. All of a sudden the design just sort of formed on it's own!

Heavy Copper Cuff Bracelet

This is one chunky cuff bracelet! It's made out of solid 6 gauge Copper wire giving this cuff some real heft! The copper was soldered together into a sinuous curved design. The bracelet was then patinated and sealed with an archival wax to protect the finish and retard oxidation.

The center focal curves are 2" at the widest point, and the arms of the cuff turn in opposite directions to easily slip on your wrist.

This bracelet is totally adjustable, fitting either a man or a woman. Give me your wrist measurement at purchase and I'll size it accordingly.

Check out my Esty shop for more photos of this and other jewelry items. I'm hoping to keep adding new pieces to my Etsy shop every couple of days...

Where's the Champagne?? Let's Launch this Ship!

"Meredith Hilt is a Virginia based artist who makes her home in the Blueridge Mountains. Although born in Virginia, Meredith's life has taken her through Europe, the United States and Asia. After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (PA), she spent years in the trenches of graphic and web design. Meredith now paints, and creates unique jewelry for fun and pleasure. Her speciality is designing fine jewelry of precious metal and wire, using metal-smithing techniques. Her artwork can be found in boutiques and galleries in Virginia and Maryland."



Well, the above blurb is the commonly published Artist's Bio I use. But gosh, it's hard to sum up your life and artistic ambitions up in one paragraph!

In the past, my skilled abilities have mostly been devoted to two dimensional skills. Graphic design and paint are normally limited to canvas or paper, and the Internet to a flat screen. While I love to relax by painting (when I can) I find that my creative juices have been devoted exclusively to jewelry lately. I've discovered a whole new world of fulfillment! Where my artistic Muse was occasionally delinquent in the past, I'm now almost overwhelmed by jewelry ideas on a daily basis! I see possible jewelry pieces while looking at leaves, trivets and even cars! I've taken to carrying a sketch book with me to scratch down ideas as they pop into my head. Now, if I can only find the time to actually be able to produce them all!

I hope, with this blog, to be able to give some insight into my creative world and also to keep you up to date on things. I'll post about what I'm working on, my latest inspirations, my Etsy shop, upcoming classes and how my relationship is progressing with my Muse.