Scrimshaw is the art of "drawing" pictures on polished ivory, bone or horn with a sharp tool or knife. The scratched surface is rubbed with ink, and when the ink is removed, it remains in the carved areas. Scrimshaw is said to be the only original American art form born in the golden age of whaling during the 18th and 19th centuries when whalers had idle time aboard ships. Using a jack knife or a nail for a scribe, they scratched out primitive renditions of their ships, the hunt, or their love for back home. From crude beginnings, Scrimshaw has evolved into a very fine art form with full color photographic quality artwork now possible.

The Ivory Law

The Four Winds Craft Guild and the craftspeople we represent comply with the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and with US Fish & Wildlife regulations regarding ivory and bone. The ivory and bone used by our carvers has been obtained legally and in a manner that is not detrimental to the survival of the species they are taken from.

The majority of the ivory we use is “fossil ivory” from the Wooly Mammoth which lived during the Pleistocene era from 1.8 million to 11 thousand years ago. It is generally found at present in the thawing dense layers of the Arctic. Any elephant ivory that we use is known as “estate ivory” and was imported into the US during the 1950s and 1960s.