#scrimshaw

it's not traditional scrimshaw as it's obv not whale bone or ivory (which i would never work with for ethical reasons, unless i had the proper permissions) and while i did carve the initial designs, eventually i just had to ink it freehand since doing fine linework with a quill on bone is very hard, to say the least. i had to deal with so many spills that then had to be covered up in solid color, and now my hands are covered in ink.

the deer bone was sourced from a skeleton i found in the woods right next to my house. i took only the cool bits i could use, like the skull and some vertebrae and this scapula, and left the rest for nature to keep.

collecting bones and other animal remains in this way, even if from something that's already dead, is really not something you're supposed to do. by legal definition it's poaching, so don't try this at home kids.

Scrimshawed whale tooth, 1836