KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Please don't take this personally, but that's the one question I won't answer, other than to say yes they are indeed quite labor intensive!
-K
-K
Doberman Pinscher dog scrimshaw pendant (lots of pics)
- Thread starter KatherinePlumer
- Start date
rod
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine,
We have been in Healdsburg for family Christmas, and just back, so I am late opening your post.
Please include me in the list of "wonderful tutorial, photography, art, and execution" group!
I am so pleased to get a deeper understanding of the scrim process, especially the important sequence if you are doing subtle coloring. Knowing something about you and your mother's ranch and animals, it must be a big change to go from brushing down a one ton horse, back to your engraving bench, to work on an exquisite tiny little scrim in ivory.
Hope you have an example or two in your pocket when you go to Reno?
Seasons greetings!
Rod
We have been in Healdsburg for family Christmas, and just back, so I am late opening your post.
Please include me in the list of "wonderful tutorial, photography, art, and execution" group!
I am so pleased to get a deeper understanding of the scrim process, especially the important sequence if you are doing subtle coloring. Knowing something about you and your mother's ranch and animals, it must be a big change to go from brushing down a one ton horse, back to your engraving bench, to work on an exquisite tiny little scrim in ivory.
Hope you have an example or two in your pocket when you go to Reno?
Seasons greetings!
Rod
ddushane
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine, I can't add to what everyone else has said, I'm totally impressed. It looks like a photograph. Your work has always been great and this is no different. Thanks for posting the progression of the work.
Dwayne
Dwayne
Katherine,
This piece is really an out of the park, grand slam home run.
To see it from conception to birth is a treat in itself.
Thank you for letting us look over your shoulder.
Best regards.
This piece is really an out of the park, grand slam home run.
To see it from conception to birth is a treat in itself.
Thank you for letting us look over your shoulder.
Best regards.
What a way to end the year with a beautiful job like this! Thank you so much for the progression photos, Katherine. Your work is spectacular! Wow!! / ~Sam
KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Thank you! 
Montejano
Elite Cafe Member
Hi Katherine:
His work is fantastic and you are very talented. In these photos you have shown, we see very well the process of their work in color.
My congratulations and thanks for showing.
Antonio
His work is fantastic and you are very talented. In these photos you have shown, we see very well the process of their work in color.
My congratulations and thanks for showing.
Antonio
Mario Sarto
Elite Cafe Member
Hello Katherine!
What else can i say, that's not written already?
The work you show is absolutely enchanting. It is a pleasure to watch it.
Thank you very much for this.
What else can i say, that's not written already?
The work you show is absolutely enchanting. It is a pleasure to watch it.
Thank you very much for this.
mdengraver
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Katherine,
I have a question about one of your comments in the scrimshaw process?
You said in your write-up "What I hope you can see in this pic is that it ends up pretty heavily engraved, though you can't really feel it much with your fingers. There is NO surface ink. It's all down in the dots, and I buff these things down quite hard between ink layers!" My question is when you buff your dots between the layers don't you loose details. The dots I imagine are very tiny and not that deep, or are you just smoothing it out to remove the burrs. I know you stated that the process you shared with us is in no way meant to be a tutorial, I'm asking because understanding that part of the process may be crucial in the success or failure of a scrimshaw attempted by one of us less experienced people.
Thanks
I have a question about one of your comments in the scrimshaw process?
You said in your write-up "What I hope you can see in this pic is that it ends up pretty heavily engraved, though you can't really feel it much with your fingers. There is NO surface ink. It's all down in the dots, and I buff these things down quite hard between ink layers!" My question is when you buff your dots between the layers don't you loose details. The dots I imagine are very tiny and not that deep, or are you just smoothing it out to remove the burrs. I know you stated that the process you shared with us is in no way meant to be a tutorial, I'm asking because understanding that part of the process may be crucial in the success or failure of a scrimshaw attempted by one of us less experienced people.
Thanks
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KatherinePlumer
Elite Cafe Member
Thanks everyone!
mdengraver: Good question! I really wish you could all just stand here in my little studio (hoo boy that would get crowded!) and see this stuff. It's really hard to explain sometimes, especially when it's something I don't think a lot about during the process.
Maybe buffing isn't the right word. Polishing? Wiping? See, I have this major pet peeve about some scrim I've seen that has a couple scratched lines and then ink all over the surface. That, to me, is not scrim, it's painting. Maybe it's a newbie mistake, I don't know, but it's out there. I mean, nobody would smear ink onto metal and call that engraving. So I'm absolutely determined not to leave ink on the surface. It seems to me that surface ink would wear off pretty fast anyway, I don't want that! When it's really heavily scrimmed (stippled? engraved? whatever you want to call it) the surface gets pretty rough, kind of like when an engraving background is relieved and stippled I would imagine. It's a mass of dots.
It takes some serious time to build it up that dark. For me anyway, I'm fairly light-handed. So I build up more and more dots until I get the tone where I want it, inking and wiping it each time to see how it's coming along.
Here's the inking process, in a nutshell:
1) scrim it!
2) apply liquid drawing ink with a ridiculously small brush
3) go play on the forums for a few minutes while it dries (it dries almost instantly but for good measure I like to give it 10 minutes)
4) GENTLY wipe up surface ink with a barely damp soft rag (I tore up an old t-shirt. I say gently because if you really go at it with a damp rag you WILL pull the ink out of the scrim.) Repeat gently with clean parts of the rag.
5) go play on the forums (or, you know, work on something else) for a few minutes while it dries again, since you've just gotten it a bit damp
6) at this point you either do it again if you need more dots/lines, or if you're finished then apply some Renaissance Wax, smear that around on there, let it dry for a few minutes, and then buff the WAX down. That's where the buffing comes in, and that's where I put some serious pressure on the thing. Any ink that wipes off at that point wasn't down in the engraved marks. At no point do I use anything abrasive. I buff the wax down with a little scrap of nylon stocking. Or a kleenex. Or my shirt. No wait, not that last one. If it doesn't look dark enough after this, go back and do more!
If, somewhere in this process I lost detail for any reason other than accidentally pulling the ink out by using too much water or too much pressure, I figure it means I didn't scrim it well enough and I'll go back and do it again. If it can't hold up to a little buffing, it won't hold up to anything!
-Katherine
mdengraver: Good question! I really wish you could all just stand here in my little studio (hoo boy that would get crowded!) and see this stuff. It's really hard to explain sometimes, especially when it's something I don't think a lot about during the process.
Maybe buffing isn't the right word. Polishing? Wiping? See, I have this major pet peeve about some scrim I've seen that has a couple scratched lines and then ink all over the surface. That, to me, is not scrim, it's painting. Maybe it's a newbie mistake, I don't know, but it's out there. I mean, nobody would smear ink onto metal and call that engraving. So I'm absolutely determined not to leave ink on the surface. It seems to me that surface ink would wear off pretty fast anyway, I don't want that! When it's really heavily scrimmed (stippled? engraved? whatever you want to call it) the surface gets pretty rough, kind of like when an engraving background is relieved and stippled I would imagine. It's a mass of dots.
It takes some serious time to build it up that dark. For me anyway, I'm fairly light-handed. So I build up more and more dots until I get the tone where I want it, inking and wiping it each time to see how it's coming along.
Here's the inking process, in a nutshell:
1) scrim it!
2) apply liquid drawing ink with a ridiculously small brush
3) go play on the forums for a few minutes while it dries (it dries almost instantly but for good measure I like to give it 10 minutes)
4) GENTLY wipe up surface ink with a barely damp soft rag (I tore up an old t-shirt. I say gently because if you really go at it with a damp rag you WILL pull the ink out of the scrim.) Repeat gently with clean parts of the rag.
5) go play on the forums (or, you know, work on something else) for a few minutes while it dries again, since you've just gotten it a bit damp
6) at this point you either do it again if you need more dots/lines, or if you're finished then apply some Renaissance Wax, smear that around on there, let it dry for a few minutes, and then buff the WAX down. That's where the buffing comes in, and that's where I put some serious pressure on the thing. Any ink that wipes off at that point wasn't down in the engraved marks. At no point do I use anything abrasive. I buff the wax down with a little scrap of nylon stocking. Or a kleenex. Or my shirt. No wait, not that last one. If it doesn't look dark enough after this, go back and do more!
If, somewhere in this process I lost detail for any reason other than accidentally pulling the ink out by using too much water or too much pressure, I figure it means I didn't scrim it well enough and I'll go back and do it again. If it can't hold up to a little buffing, it won't hold up to anything!
-Katherine
mdengraver
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Thanks for the useful explanation!
Katherine,
Thanks for the useful explanation! I and I'm sure others found that explanation quite interesting and enlightening. Now the question is would some aspects of that same technique perhaps apply to engraving multi-color bulino on metal as well.
Katherine,
Thanks for the useful explanation! I and I'm sure others found that explanation quite interesting and enlightening. Now the question is would some aspects of that same technique perhaps apply to engraving multi-color bulino on metal as well.
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