About

A Short Description on ivory and Scrimshaw


FOSSIL IVORY

Fossil ivory is a legacy from true Native Americans, the American Eskimo who hunted for subsistence in the frozen North. The ivory is found buried in old Eskimo camps that can only be dug during the short summer months of June trough September. Although most of the best fossil ivory comes from the island of St. Lawrence in the Bearing Sea, it is found throughout Northwestern Alaska and also in Canada and Siberia.
This old ivory as the Eskimo call it, owes its natural beauty and warmth to mineral permeation of the ivory by chemicals in the arctic soil. Our gift from the past, fossil ivory, is unique in that it allows us to enjoy the richest ivory without endangering our present environment.

SCRIMSHAW

Scrimshaw is an American Folk Art that dates back over 200 years ago to the Yankee sailors of New England. Using only a sharp pointed scribe and ink, these sailors of twenty decades ago scrimmed scenes showing those things they knew best, their ships, the sea and adventures encountered in their voyages.


Everybody in the pictures has participated at one time or another in the process of the scrimshaw work shown on these pages; from preparing the ivory and mounts to recreating historical designs and contemporary scenes with free hand engraving and in the making of these pages.

1