Scrimshaw Buttons

These buttons are called Studio Buttons. They are buttons I have made for button collectors, not for the retail trade.

Chinese Junk on Tagua with skin left as border Basket on tagua	Cock crowing on ivory	Flying duck on ivory Higgins Ink on Ivory
Sea Turtle on Tagua with skin left as border	Thistle on bone Candle on Ivory	Owl on ivory

Larger buttons

Mermaid on an old ivory piano key

This "link" is obviously not a button. It is a part of the boardwalk in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Scrimshanding is something I enjoy doing. For years, I had been doing pen & ink drawings with tiny detail. One day, while browsing the shops in Provincetown (Massachusetts) in the early 80's, I noticed some beautiful pieces of scrimshaw. I noticed that the detail of the scrimshaw was similar to what I had been drawing with my ink pens. I decided to try my hand at scrimshaw and bought some ivory "blanks". It was mostly trial and error using a sharpened horse blanket pin to etch the design but I found that I really enjoyed the work. It has a calming effect on me.

I do not use the blanket pin now, I use scribing tools, exacto knives, penknives, dentist tools (but NO power tools) and have a good time scrimming. The process I use isn't the type written about in books, but it works for me. A lot of family members and friends got gifts of scrimmed jewelry during the following couple of years. I even sold a few pieces!! All the while, I was getting better at the art.

When buttons took my fancy, it was only a small step to doing buttons using scrimshaw... Martha Breen (a fellow member of the Crescent Button Club and a dealer of buttons) saw some of my buttons and suggested I make more for her to sell at her tables. Oh, was I thrilled!! I started making more buttons... I found other materials to use (I do not condone killing elephants for ivory and only use old ivory or scraps I buy from a master scrimshander from Cape Cod) like plastics, tagua nuts, old pearl buttons, woods, metal (well, I have only made one special button in metal for one special person), man-made "ivory"... it really doesn't matter what you use as long as the finished product is good.

Scrimshanding has made brought me many friends across the United States and Canada... I cannot just make something (most of my work is special order) without getting to know the person the piece is for! Some of these friends are as dear to me as my own family.

There are many artists making scrimshanded buttons since I first began and they are really good at their art!! I hope to eventually own an example of each person's work. I do not have more than 5 of my own pieces in my button collection, but one woman is on her way to having 50... she has patiently been waiting for me to finish her order of the 50 State flowers done on medium pearl buttons (with added color).

Being a "Studio Artist" is great, but the friendships are even better!! I applaud all the past and present Studio Artists and their fine works. It isn't always easy to please a customer or yourself in this work....

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