Recent Work

This was my entry for this year's International Scrimshaw Competition which took place this September at Mystic Scrimshanders in Wickford, Rhode Island. It won first place in the color wildlife category. In this piece I tried to capture the exuberance and ferocity of wolves in chase of their prey. It is scrimshawed on a very solid piece of mammoth ivory cut from outer surface of the tusk. Ken Fredericks prepared the ivory and made the stand from Honduran rosewood, one of the last pieces I have that he made for me.

3" X 5 1/8" X 1 1/2" (ivory size)

In 1768, Lieutenant James Cook set sailed from England on a refitted ship named "Endeavour" on his first voyage to explore the South Pacific Ocean and find "the southern continent". After a stay on Tahiti, the Endeavour headed south and west to New Zealand which had been discovered by Abel Tasman a century earlier. They charted the islands extensively and determined that they were not connected to a larger continent. They then sailed east and charted the east coast of Australia. Two naturalists were members of the 85 man crew, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. After more than two years of exploration the Endeavour returned to England in 1771. The stand was made by Ken Fredericks from African rosewood with mammoth ivory and abalone inlay.

6" X 2 5/8" X 1 1/2" (ivory size)

Rivals competing for salmon, a bald eagle eyes the catch in the jaws of the cub while its mother keeps a wary eye on the eagle. Scrimshawed on the tip end of an antique walrus tusk.

2 5/8" X 11 1/2" X 1 3/4 "

A leopard giving fair warning to an intruder that she will defend her territory. It was scrimmed on a complete fossil walrus tusk, which is an unusual find. The beautiful wood stand was made by Roger Cash with a detailed title panel of ivory inlaid in the front.

1 3/4" X 11 i/2" X 1" (ivory dimensions)

This piece was scrimmed on a large flat slab of antique elephant ivory that fits on the lid of a jewelry box. Mount Kilimanjaro looms in the distance.

4" X 6 1/2" X 3/16"

This scene of a mother polar bear out on the ice with her two nearly full grown cubs was commissioned for this beautiful fossil walrus ice axe, one of the nicest pieces of ivory I have worked on.

3" X 13" X 2" (approx)

The owner of this beautiful sperm whale tooth (a resident of Washington State) commissioned this whaling scene. It depicts the crew of the whale boat cautiously approaching a breaching sperm whale before throwing the first harpoon. The back is illustrated in the style of a 19th century engraving accompanied by a verse of an old whaling song.

5" X 2 3/4"

This scrim was done on one of the nicest (and largest) slabs of mammoth ivory I have ever worked on. The mount is by Roger Cash and I scrimmed a double eagle NW design in the ivory inlay.

7 1/2" X 5 3/4" X 3 3/4"

This scene on a piece of mammoth ivory depicts a black jaguar standing on ancient Mayan inscriptions carved in stone with the ruins of a temple in the background, drawn from the work of Frederick Catherwood (one of the first westerners to view these Mayan sites and to document them in sketches and engravings in the early 19th Century). The beautiful wood mount with inlay is made by Ken Fredericks.

6" X 5" X 2 1/2"

Scrimshaw on an antique sperm whale tooth with inlay mount by Ken Fredericks.

"Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, the Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam,...the torn, enraged waves he shakes off, seem his mane; in some cases, this breaching is his act of defiance." Herman Melville in Moby-Dick

6 1/4" X 2 5/8" X 1 3/4" (ivory)

This Old World Globe is based on a map by Hondius circa 1630 scrimmed on an ivory billiard ball. The wooden stand is made by Ken Fredericks.

1 7/8" diameter

A pair of giant pandas in the wild scrimmed on a beautiful piece of fossil walrus ivory.

2 3/8" X 6 3/4" X 1 1/4"

An underwater scene of humpback whales scrimmed on a fossil walrus artifact.

2 1/2" X 7 1/2" X 1 1/4"

A peaceful morning at the water's edge, this scene was scrimshawed on a striking fossil walrus ice axe. The owner of the ivory commissioned the piece with this combination of animals in mind, elk and sea otters.

3" X 11" X 1 1/2"

This pair of male Mandarin ducks is a scrim I did on a beautiful piece of mammoth ivory prepared and mounted by Ken Fredericks. Inspired by a Mandarin I saw in Lithia park in Ashland, Oregon.

4 1/4" X 3 1/2" X 1 3/4"

This set was designed through a collaboration between Ken Fredericks and myself. Unable to find suitable matching pieces of mammoth ivory we came up with the idea of cutting these from a single section of a fossil walrus tusk making a unique matching pair. The bases are made of ebony with inlay of fossil walrus ivory.

3 7/8" X 4 1/8" X 1 1/2" each overall

"Catching a Break", scrimmed on a fossil walrus tusk with a Ken Fredericks mount.

2" X 8 1/2" X 1 1/4" (ivory

This globe is done on one of the larger ivory billiard balls I have worked on. I used a map drawn for the United States Fisheries Commission by A. Howard Clarke in the 1850's delineating the whaling grounds of the world. I took advantage of the size of the ivory to insert images from old whaling prints.

2 1/4 " diameter