pegasus Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 Greetings Carvers, My name is Don Hoaglund, I think that I signed in as Pegasus ( a name that i use in my business). I live and work in New Bedford MA USA. 30 years ago, as an art student at university, I took up scrimshaw as a commercial venture, to help defray school costs. I have been involved in small scale carving since then. As an historical note, it should be known that during the ninteenth century this city was the world capital of the whaling industry. Much whale product and byproduct was brought here. By the end of the 1950's a revival, so to speak, of scrimshaw advanced in popularity. Bushels of sperm whale teeth were cut up into slabs, polished, scratched with scenes of whaling ships and whales etc and set as jewelry objects. The popularity of this art form caused the supply of whale teeth to decline and the remaining teeth began to be viewed as much more precious in one piece, so elephant ivory was seen as a viable substitute for the jewelry form. I worked in this form for a few years, until environmental concern for these precious substances began to become wide spread and my career path had to be revised, for me it was more from concern for endangered species than economic pressures. Fortunatly, I had been learning the jewelers craft from a number of my customers and the transition to model maker was smooth and my carving skills have been instrumental in my economic success as a jeweler. However the allure of the precious substances (whale tooth and ivory) does sometimes manifest itself and I carve for my own collection. Thanks to Tom Sterling for guiding me to the carving path, and thanks to the like minded folks who have provided the carving path as a forum. The attachment is a carving of a 6inch sperm whale tooth c. 1985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Sanders Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 That's a great piece! So much going on in that compact form. It gets me wondering if there are any whale tooth chess sets out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 It is nice to meet you, Don! Thank you for the interesting history and the picture. Welcome aboard! Janel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsterling Posted November 7, 2005 Report Share Posted November 7, 2005 Hi Don, Glad to see you took my advice and signed up to The Carving Path. I know you'll enjoy it. Good to have you on board! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DFogg Posted November 8, 2005 Report Share Posted November 8, 2005 Welcome. I like the carving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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