Stories from the sea, carved by hand
SCRIMSHAW
Long before scrimshaw found its way into jewelry cases, it was an art form born at sea.
Beginning in the late 18th century, sailors carved and engraved whale bone, teeth, and baleen during long voyages. With months or even years spent away from home, ships, whales, portraits, and scenes of life at sea became a way to pass the time, becoming tiny records of the sailors' lives and travels.
Often carried home as souvenirs or gifts, these objects offer an intimate glimpse into the world of those who made them and the ocean that surrounded them.
Hannah's scrimshaw is rooted in this history, while making it her own.
CARVING THE STORY
Traditional scrimshanders created images by scratching thousands of tiny lines into a smooth surface, then rubbing pigment into the incisions to reveal the drawing. Hannah uses this same technique, hand carving delicate lines to build imagery one mark at a time.
There is no shortcut. A single piece can require hours of careful carving, with each tiny detail giving the finished work its character.
Hannah loves this intimacy. Even the smallest piece carries the unmistakable evidence of the hand that made it.
A LOVE OF THE OCEAN
For Hannah, the ocean has always been a source of inspiration, its stories and details making their way into her work again and again.
Fish weave through seaweed. Jellyfish glide through the water. An octopus crawls across the ocean floor. Some stories are recognizable at first, while others are revealed only when you look a little closer.
Hannah loves that scrimshaw allows an entire underwater world to exist on a tiny surface.
SHIPS, WHALES & LIFE AT SEA
Ships and whales are among the most recognizable subjects in traditional scrimshaw. For sailors spending years at sea, carving was a way to pass the time, record their experiences, and carry pieces of their world home with them.
For Hannah, these images have always felt close to home as a child of Nantucket and a daughter of a fisherman. Her ships and whales are a nod to those early pieces, connecting her work to the visual language of sailors who spent their lives following the ocean nearly two centuries ago.
SIRENS OF THE SEA
Not everything beneath the waves can be explained. Perhaps that's why the sea inspires so many stories, giving rise to creatures that exist somewhere between reality and imagination.
Hannah has always been drawn to these alluring, romantic stories and to the idea that, just beneath the surface, an unknowable world may exist.
Sirens, in particular, have captured Hannah's imagination. In mythology, they were beautiful and dangerous creatures whose songs lured sailors toward the rocks. Hannah carves these ladies to be a bit mysterious, inspired as much by folklore as by the ocean itself.
They are a reminder that the best sea stories leave a little room for the unknown.
Explore the full Scrimshaw collection...
