Jackie Du Plessis's "A Sailor's Valentine" class
Jackie includes two precious printed paper inserts in the kits, but for those who want to add a little extra 19th c flare to their projects, I have been asked to make scrimshaw cabochons for the centers of the two panels. As shown above, I measured a completed panel from last year's class while at Williamsburg. I have made the cabochons 2 mm smaller so they nestle perfectly within the circular center, with room for the chenille to be couched neatly around them.
19th c Sailor-made scrimshaw is beautiful. It was made from whalebone, whale's teeth, and ivory. For my scrimshaw, I have sourced the most authentic ivory substitute made today. It is absolutely gorgeous. It replicates the grain and Schreger lines of real elephant ivory so perfectly that the manufacturer processes it with a fluorescent that glows under UV light so that it cannot be sold as real ivory.
Here you can see how beautiful and transparent it is. The grain of each piece cannot be replicated. It is made in the manufacturing process, and changes throughout the large bulk pieces.
It is actually pretty exciting because the grain cannot be seen until the pieces are sanded smooth~ so I have no idea how they're going to look until I have sat and hand-sanded them for yes, literally over an hour. I do everything by hand the old-fashioned way~ NO POWER TOOLS ARE USED WHAT SO EVER. It takes me about 4 hours of work to make a single set from start to finish. First, the shape is cut, then sliced into coins. From there each piece is hand-sanded from 120 grit to start up to 420 wet sanding to finish.
Once the pieces are super smooth, I draw the design on with a pencil and then hand scratch it into the surface, as shown above. These are super tiny, so I actually place them on sandpaper to hold them still while I'm working them as my hands get super crampy
Now...in the period, the most popular thing used to get the etching to show up was tobacco spit. I don't chew tobacco, so I use India Ink, which actually was also used back then ;)
There is more sanding to remove excess India from the surface, and then they are polished with wax for a nice, natural shine. Again, only hand polishing.
The cabochons are drilled thru the edge for stitching onto the panels.
There are two designs, a sailing ship and Sailor's heart/anchor. I can fit TWO initials within the heart if you would like to personalize your set.
If you are interested in purchasing a set, you can do so by clicking the "Scrimshaw" tab at the top of my blog header, or click here to go there now. Ordering info is at the bottom of the page
