Scrimshaw








My interest in scrimshaw started when I read Moby Dick as a kid. My wife's uncle 

had a world class collection of scrimshaw that included a piece that sat on 

Herman Melville’s desk while he wrote Moby Dick. Small world!


Ann and I moved  lived to Florida about six years ago. The closeness to the ocean, 

along with visits to the Florida Maritime Museum in historic Cortez got me hooked 

on exploring this traditional folk art medium. 


Traditional scrimshaw involved carving scenes of everyday whaling life into available 

materials. For early whalers those were whale teeth and bones. 

 I’m not a whaler, but I do spend a lot of time on the beach collecting sea shells, 

so it made sense to use this readily available material for scrimshaw.





Storm


Cortez Florida


Gulf Coast Fishing Village


Fishing Boat


The following images are inspired by John James Audubon.



Great Blue Heron



Fishing Egret



Pink Flamingo



Roseate Spoonbill



Brown Pelican


Another Gulf Coast subject of interest would be fish.


Goliath Grouper



Mahi Mahi


Sheepshead


Swordfish



Storm Fish



Crazy Fish


These last two aren’t fish but Neptune does live under the sea.






I seem to have taken a couple of years off from scrimshaw.
Well I’m back at a new work table in a new home.

Time to start making some new work!




Sea Turtle 




Sea Turtle too


After The Storm



Siren of fhe Seas


All images © 2023 Alex Murawski

















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