Michael learned scrimshaw in 1968, at the age of 13. His parents rented a summer home on Nantucket, where whales teeth were available for a couple of dollars, in barrels throughout downtown giftshops. Along with his older brother Larry, (another accomplished scrimshander), the two brothers learned the art together. By 1974, Michael was supporting himself solely with his scrimshaw work. In 1990, after 16-years of working and selling his work out of several local galleries, Michael opened his own, called The Scrimshander Gallery, located at #19 Old South Wharf, Nantucket. There, patrons can watch the artist at work, and see how scrimwork is done. Mike's work is traditional in subject matter. He uses an exacto knife along with several homemade tools, and oil paints from sepia tones to polychrome. Michael is also an accomplished carver of 3-dimensional ivory carvings for the tops of Nantucket Lightship baskets. He uses primarily vintage sperm whale teeth from pre-1972 stockpiles, fossil walrus, Mammoth and Mastodon ivories (10,000 to 20,000-years old). Michael turns his own bases for the whale teeth, as well as turned mortgage buttons and ivory globes. He makes and turns ivory boxes, carves whaleboards, cribbage boards, and knife handles.
Michael and his wife, Barbara, have two teenage daughters, Nellie & Georgina. They live year-round on Nantucket Island. When not scrimshanding, Mike can be found mountian biking or walking his yellow lab on the Nantucket moors, or cheering for the Boston Red Sox.
His website is The Scrimshander Gallery.
www.ScrimshanderGallery.com
for more scrimshaw images