Bob Hergert ~ Micro-Scrimshaw
Scrimshaw is the art of incising or cutting designs into bone and ivory. Early whalers used whales' teeth and bone to create their works of art. Eskimos used mammoth and walrus tusks. Today scrimshanders use woolly mammoth tusk and ivory substitutes like micarta and corian and elforyn.
Back in 1978 Bob was selling prints of his pen and ink drawings when a jeweler in Portland suggested he try scrimshaw. The jeweler felt it suited Bob's style which was stippling (drawing with dots of ink), and the subjects that Bob favored - sailing ships. So he cut some ivory cabochons and told Bob to scratch the polished surface with a needle and rub ink into the scratches. That was all the instruction he got. Over the years he made better scribes to cut microscopic points and lines. He also learned that oil paint offered superior qualities to ink. So with microscope, his techniques and tools in hand, he matured to become one of the greats.
