Work in Progress: Papier-Mâché Whale Vertebra Part One

      Before leaving Northern California for good in September I made one last trek out to my favorite beachcombing spot near Point Reyes National Seashore to collect a few more buoys.  While rambling along the rocky coast I nearly fainted when I made one whopper of a discovery: a massive, decaying whale carcass. I had always hoped to run across a lone whale vertebra washed up on the shore and here was not just one, but indeed an entire whale's worth!

      Now, it isn't legal for an individual to possess any part of a whale, and the vertebra pictured below was way too heavy, oily, and stinky to drag back up the cliff with me anyway, so I was satisfied to take a few pictures of my find and call it a day.

      Back home, while editing the photos, I couldn't shake the desire to add that whale vertebra to my nautical collections, and I determined that I would try my best to duplicate my own (legal and less smelly!) version in papier-mâché! I guess I had papier-mâché on the brain, having recently watched a video about how one of my favorite artists, Mark Dion, and his team of sculptors recreated in papier-mâché all of the gear used in a little-known 1908 expedition to the Far East.

     Working from my photographs and using the buoys pictured above for scale (I did take those and that wicked-looking gaff hook home with me!) I drew out a full-scale template for all of the elements that I would need to build a sturdy interior structure upon which to layer the mâché. Fortunately, at the time I was working at the Oakland Museum, and was permitted to use the woodshop and some discarded wood to create parts that I would be able to take home and assemble when I was ready to start the project!

     I am now happily relocated (once again!) to Los Angeles, working for a super-creative, awe-inspiring company, and settling into my new life here; it seems the time is right for getting to work on that whale vertebra! I'm so glad I took the time to figure out all of the mechanics of the interior structure while I had access to a woodshop; all of the elements screwed together just as I had envisioned, and before long I had a rock-solid "skeleton" for my new papier-mâché project! 

     The next step will be to cover most of the structure with wire mesh to further fill out and refine the shape of the vertebra and provide a good, textured surface onto which the mâché may be applied. 

      I will post an update as soon as I start the process of applying the papier-mâché!

June Projects: Charles W. Morgan, Eleggua, Peyote Rattle and More!!!

Although I have been working at the museums quite regularly of late, I am still finding time to work on some little projects here and there. Lest my patient readers begin to fear I've dropped off the face of the earth, I'll take a moment to share...

1. An old model of the whaler Charles W. Morgan that I had been meaning to assemble for at least the last year. I finally started on it, and am about 3/4 of the way through. I'll confess that I never had the patience for model building growing up, and still find the process supremely tedious. I made one other model of the US Navy hospital ship Haven a few years ago to display in my hospitalmuseum; I think the Charles Morgan may be my final foray into model building! This model won't be painted... I have another idea in mind that I will share as the project nears completion! Before getting started on the model, I drove down to Mystic Seaport, where the actual Charles Morgan is hauled out of the water for a major restoration, to get some inspiration:













The brick "tryworks" on deck, where blubber was boiled and rendered into oil.

The area below deck at the front of the ship called the "forecastle" where the majority of the crew members slept. Most of the props and bedding in the forecastle and throughout the rest of the ship have been stripped out for the duration of the restoration.

2. I have had a handful of bone choker tube beads laying around for a while; I combined them with some India glass trade beads and made a nice, simple Plains Indian-style choker. This may end up in the FinderMaker online shop when I start stocking it up, as I'm not generally one to leave the house done up in Native American-style regalia (if you were to infer that I am apt to parade around inside the house in Native American regalia, though, you might just be on to something!)

3. This is a replica of a wonderful coconut and cowrie shell Eleggua effigy I saw online . It was for sale, but was way out of my price range, and anyway it looked like a fun project to replicate at home! I'm not done with it yet; just need to find some colorful little feathers and a few other magical sundries to adorn it with!

4. I made one of these peyote ceremony rattles about a year ago, and, after running across an extra gourd I had purchased at a farmer's market last year, decided it was time to assemble another. I think this one has turned out beautifully so far; the feather and horsehair tip on this one is extra fancy! The next step will be to add the peyote-stitch beadwork over the white leather portions; I think the beadwork on this one will have several shades of green in it. I can't wait to share photos when it is done!

5. You are probably getting awfully tired of seeing this thing! I took the strip of lazy-stitch beadwork off of the front once again and re-did it in the pattern you see presently. I also replaced the earlier cobalt beads on the red sheepskin portion with old turquoise-colored glass trade beads, and affixed the abalone and tin-cone hair drops around the sides and back (I will do a complete post with photos of all of this when it is completed!) I chose some of the finest wild turkey feathers from the batch I found at Mount Hope Farm, and have wrapped and stitched red sheepskin around the base of each in preparation for affixing them to the top of the cap. I'm finally happy with the way that front beadwork strip looks, and will definitely be keeping it!

6. In fact, I liked the beadwork pattern I came up with for the cap above so much that I just kept going with it on my little bead loom... I guess I have a hatband now!

7. One of my earliest FinderMaker posts showed me crafting a replica of an old whaling harpoon. I had made examples of two of the predominant styles of hand-darted harpoons: the double-flue and toggle irons, and figured I should add the third common style, the single-flue iron, to complete the set. The baked fimo head has been epoxied onto the shaft, and the seam sanded smooth; now the shaft and head will be painted to resemble old metal, then affixed to the cedar pole that is all shaped, sanded and ready to receive it. This is a fun project to work on using readily available materials; if your collection of nautical artifacts could benefit from the addition of a real showpiece, I encourage you to go back and follow my how-to!

Thank you so much for sticking around... I regret that I've allowed so much time to lapse since my last post! I'll be sure to do updates as I complete these (and other!) projects. Thanks for joining me!!!

Recent Finds #2 and More Relics of the Old Whaling Days

Earlier in the month, Anne and I took a drive down to Mystic, Connecticut to experience B.F. Clyde's, the only steam-powered apple cider mill in the U.S. It was a lovely fall day; perfect weather for apple cider and cider donuts! Amply nourished, we commenced a lazy automobile tour of the area, and ended up poking around a few antiques stores and a fun Goodwill store in Groton, Connecticut. The Goodwill visit yielded the glass-domed dried weed arrangement pictured above for a more than reasonable .99 cents, and a very old pad of manila paper for .50 cents: perfect for any project calling for old-looking labels or tags!

A local antiques shop made for some entertaining browsing, but my purchase was limited to a small corked bottle of mysterious oil, procured for $2.99. I desperately wanted it to be an old bottle of whale oil to enhance my modest collection of nautical and whaling related artifacts, and it might well be, though it was unlabeled, and the thoroughly stuck cork will prevent me from ever truly knowing!

I thought the little bottle rather closely resembled some I had seen in a whaling display at Mystic Seaport. The display featured a wooden box containing bottled samples of oil taken from each whale captured during the 1875-1878 voyage of the whaleship Ohio:







Curious to glean a bit more information regarding what a bottle of whale oil might look like, I searched the online object collection of the wonderful Whaling Museum in nearby New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was intrigued by an entry for a bottle of "Spermacity [sic] taken direct from the cooling tank by the cooper on the last voyage of the Charles W. Morgan". Below is a picture of the bottle, courtesy of the Whaling Museum:





The Charles W. Morgan is the only surviving wooden whaleship from the 1800's. It is on permanent display at Mystic Seaport, where it is currently undergoing a thorough restoration. Though the Whaling Museum's aluminum foil-topped bottle of "spermacity" might leave something to be desired aesthetically, I was greatly impressed by the powerfully evocative nature of such an artifact; I couldn't help but imagine the cooper's urgent desire to preserve a little bit of that slippery stuff that had been the Morgan's very raison d'être, on what he knew would be the last of her 37 successful whaling voyages.

Thusly inspired and, as ever, not much of a stickler for authenticity, I determined that, for my own enjoyment, my little bottle of mystery oil might easily be transformed into an artifact of the old whaling days. The real value of any artifact on display, whether authentic or not, is it's power to vividly evoke a sense of the time or circumstance during which the object originated. That old "spermacity" bottle in the Whaling Museum might actually contain castor oil for all I know, but it's very existence captivated me and, in turn, led me to further investigate records of the Charles W. Morgan's final voyage (peruse the actual logbook from her last voyage here). The potential for an object to tell a story and inspire exploration and learning has long been a source of interest to me; indeed it was the impetus for my creation of the National Museum of Hospital and Pharmaceutical History, but alas, I digress...

My .50 cent pad of antique manila paper proved the perfect material on which to type up a label for my little bottle of "whale oil". The label reads, simply: "Oil from the last whale taken by the Charles W. Morgan, 05/21/1921". Serendipitously, the glass dome that had housed a display of dried weeds was perfectly suited to the protection and enhancement of my new artifact, and was made ready by merely removing the weeds and adding a flat disk of cork for the bottle to sit upon. The result:



Thank You for joining me, and happy autumnal days to you all!!!

At Long Last!!!

A New Post!!! Warmest Salutations, Gentle Reader! Jack Frost has certainly had his way with our windowpanes, but our nest inside has remained mercifully cozy; a welcome respite from the cold, harsh winterworld outside. I fear I must have greatly disappointed my most faithful readers, of whom there are but a precious handful, I know, by failing to keep you apprised of my various creative pursuits. I am sorry to have been neglectful, but can assert in my defense that I have been keeping awfully busy, even if it has been at the expense of regular FinderMaker updates. Ah but now, where to begin? First, I must reveal that I have been been fully entrenched in an exhibit installation project at the venerable Brown University for the past 3 weeks straight (no, not my artwork, but someday...) and so have been very much thusly occupied to the exclusion of nearly all else. Second, the projects I have been working on at home have not seemed suitably aligned with the original FinderMaker concept of "finding things and making them into other, better things" so I have been struggling with the problem of staying true to that original concept (and posting only infrequently) or loosening things up a bit and posting more frequently on whatever I might happen to be working on. I haven't really decided yet, but I shall now place before you several weeks worth of sundries and curios-in-the-making if only to purge my own mind for the time being...



So, it is friday, and I am quite satisfied to have reached my personal goal of having produced five sellable wax anatomical hearts before the week was up. I originally made a few of these several years ago, as an adjunct to my obsessive interest in the wax anatomical collections of the Museo La Specola (see some Flickr images here). Recently, whilst unpacking one of a great number of crates containing pieces from my collection of antique medical implements, I had happened upon my old heart mold, and determined that I should set up a little temporary ceroplasty studio once again. This isnt a particularly stylish photo, but here are the basics of the operation as they are currently laid out:



The process of creating a wax anatomical model is delicate and arduous, and though I was certain I'd be capable of picking up the tools and creating another masterpiece immediately, in fact I created many "duds" before regaining my confidence and competence in the process. Layer upon thin, translucent layer of lighty pigmented melted wax (several types) are brushed into the mold to create the appearance of muscle, fat, and veinous tissue. Tiny, wax-dipped threads are also embedded within the layers to mimic the appearance of capillaries. The five keepers that I produced and photographed are not quite completed yet, they still require a bit of detailing and cleaning up, followed by several layers of shellac, which will deepen the colors and add a rich, flesh-like glisten to the surface. Eventually they will be mounted on plaques and put up for sale in the gift shop of my online hospital museum! Now that I have the knack of it, I hope to produce 2 a day until I am quite unable to tolerate the process any longer!

Next, I've also done a bit of scrimshaw, and hope to do very much more very soon. The following became a bookmark for my dad:



My lack of drawing skill has hampered my progress in the scrimshaw department, i'm afraid. I suppose I draw passably, but I practice so rarely that I generally feel a tad intimidated sitting before an old piece of ivory contemplating the mess I am likely to make of any scene I'd hope to permanently scribe thereon. The little harpoon turned out well enough, though, and I think I may try a few more rather soon-ish.

The few of you who know me well may know that I am quite nuts for Native American artifacts, and very much enjoy engaging in my own Native American crafts projects from time to time. The following is an authentic Cheyenne-Arapaho ceremonial Peyote fan purchased in Clinton, OK during our cross country relocation from Los Angeles to Providence:





Some 10 or so years ago I applied peyote stitch beadwork around the stem of a peace pipe I had made a few years earlier:



After procuring the peyote fan, I determined that my collection would be sorely lacking if I did not add an example of the requisite peyote gourd rattle. Alas, although the fan was purchased from among some dusty relics at a roadside curio shop for a very reasonable sum, I was unsuccessful in locating a similarly low priced gourd rattle that was as well crafted as the fan, so I turned to an online Native American crafts supply retailer and purchased a kit which supplies the necessary components for the production of ones very own gourd rattle. Mind you, this kit is basically supplies only... some skill is required to drill, carve, whittle, glue, stitch, etc. your way to a completed artifact, but I think it is well worth the price, and I have ended up with quite a nice rattle. I have yet to add the colored feather fluff to the top bit and then stitch the white buckskin over that, but once I have, It will be ready for the addition of beadwork (beads aren't included). I have assembled a nice collection of #12 czech seed beads, and am nearly ready to jump into this new peyote stitch beadwork project!



And then there is this:



An unbuilt 1960's model of the whaler Charles W. Morgan which is just begging to be built and incorporated into a diorama... I'll keep you updated!

And finally:



A top secret and proprietary project involving some of the hundreds of old national geographic magazines that were very generously passed along to me from the excellent Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
which had been in operation for many many years in lovely Bristol, RI but is currently closed and undergoing the overwhelming process of cataloging and packing its collections for a move to Providence sometime in the (probably rather distant) future.

If I didn't have so many projects to occupy me, I would surely be going quite crazy with anticipation, for I have finally gotten around to tackling the rather complex process of ordering a pair of custom made, period (circa 1860) boots from Missouri Boot and Shoe



The arrival of these beauties will herald the completion of a fine period outfit which, when donned, will immerse me ever more completely in a time which now exists only in books and fading photographs...

Thanks ever so much for stopping by... I'll try not to let so much time pass until the next posting!

A Fine Relic of the Old Whaling Days Crafted From Common Materials.

Please forgive the lack of continuity in these posts, gentle reader. True to my changeable Gemini nature, I grew tired of the idea of scrimshaw before I had completed the final act of my three part post on various ivories which was meant to culminate in a treatise on "the gentle art of scrimshaw." My attention thus diverted from the "gentle art", I pursue in it's stead an art of a decidedly less gentle nature which I will relate presently. I proclaim without hesitation that no artifact so powerfully evokes a sense of New England's colorful maritime past as that ubiquitous whalecraft, the harpoon. So numerous are the ladies and gentlemen who actively pursue relics of the old whaling days for their collections that to purchase a true harpoon original to the period, especially considering how few have survived intact, requires no small investment of disposable income, a luxury not enjoyed by most, and certainly not by myself. Fret not all of you who, like myself, would endeavor to imbue den or office with a jaunty nautical aspect, for a fine harpoon may be easily fashioned from common materials, to most remarkable effect! First, allow me to direct you to the website of a gentleman who is an authority on the subject, Mr. Thomas G. Lytle, that you might suitably educate yourself in the anatomy and various styles of harpoons. For our purposes, I focus here upon one of the earliest styles of harpoon, the hand darted type bearing the old double-flue tip which you will have read about on Mr. Lytle's website. Here I would be remiss if I did not make some mention of a very talented couple in Alaska who produce, from start to finish, harpoon reproductions of a stunning accuracy and beauty. I beg you take a moment to peruse their offerings here. He is a blacksmith, and produces the harpoon irons exactly as they were produced in the 1800's, by hammer and forge. These fine replicas are considerably less costly to purchase than an authentic artifact, but are still beyond my monetary means; if they prove beyond yours as well, then let us embark on our voyage together...
The hunt for a perfect harpoon pole takes us into the woods, or anywhere one might happen upon a good straight-ish piece of tree some 5-6 feet in length and with a diameter of 2 1/2 to 3 inches. There is an old grove of tightly planted Eastern Red Cedars ( Juniperus virginiana) in my vicinity which I think work very well. Notice that there are an abundance of these trees that have fallen by natural means; I consider these preferable, as they will generally have dried well, or "seasoned" by the time I find them, and I tend to feel better about not having depleted any living trees in my pursuits. Below is an excellent specimen; I cut it to length in the field. Notice that fine, red heartwood; it has a most bracing cedar fragrance!

And now... back to the workshop!
Here are the 3 poles I returned from the woods with; They are ready to be trimmed down a bit more before I strip the bark and shape the tip. The bark is stripped by means of an electric sander initially outfitted with a coarse paper, which also aids in the shaping of the cone-shaped tip of the pole. Finer grades of sandpaper are substituted until a desired degree of finish is achieved. Originally harpoon irons were fitted onto poles which retained their rough bark so that the harpooneer might achieve a better grip while being drenched by sea spray in the pursuit of his prey; I eschew authenticity in this detail, as I happen to enjoy the look of the sanded cedar. This pole has been stripped, sanded, and shaped to accept the "iron".
At this point, leave us retire to the crafts room and begin fashioning the harpoon "iron" (whaling lingo for the metal shaft and harpoon tip; the "business end" of the harpoon). Since we are fashioning our decorative harpoons out of common materials, let it be revealed now, if it had not been earlier inferred, that there will be no further mention of hammer or forge, as our challenge is to fool the eye into believing it sees forged metal where in fact there is none. For our "iron" we will use common "sculpey" or "fimo" plastic clays available from the local crafts emporium. These, of course, are the colorful little malleable blocks that, when formed to ones liking and baked in the oven, harden and retain that form indefinitely. In the photo below, I have kneaded the clay sculpey to make it more pliable, and have begun to fashion part of the shaft around a piece of threaded rod-- available from any hardware store-- to add stability and provide a point of attachment to the longer portion of the shaft. And here the harpoon tip is taking shape nicely. The harpoon tip need not appear perfect at this point; after it is baked it will be further refined using sandpaper. And here it is going into the oven... it will be quite hard and ready for the next steps after 30 minutes or so.Now that the harpoon head has been baked hard, the shaping and "sharpening" can commence using various grits of sandpaper. The harpoon head has been refined using sandpaper, and I am now ready to drill a hole in the longer portion of the shaft, a 2 foot long 3/8 inch diameter wooden dowel.

The hole is the same size as the piece of threaded rod protruding from the harpoon head. Some epoxy adhesive is smeared on the rod and in the hole, and the two pieces are joined and left undisturbed until the epoxy has set.
Now, a little final sanding will probably be necessary to make the seam between the head and shaft as smooth as possible. Also, before we commence with the painting, I would like to mention that our 3/8" dowel is entirely too perfect looking in its store-bought state. The shaft on a real harpoon is made of malleable, hammered iron that was almost always bent completely out of shape after being fastened to a startled and thereafter furious whale. The shaft was intended to bend, and not break under the strain, and if the whale was caught, the harpoon iron would be removed and simply hammered straight again by the ship's blacksmith and then re-used. So, it behooves us, for the sake of our clever reproduction, to take some sandpaper to the wooden dowel shaft and rub in some flat spots and irregularities all around that give the impression of the shaft having been pounded with a hammer. Thusly prepared, then, we can begin painting. I found some nice "antique silver" acrylic paint that, when toned down a bit with a daub of black, and applied in several thin layers, produced the effect of dull metal with a certain aged patina.
Once our iron is painted to our liking, it is time to fasten the shaft onto the pointed end of the harpoon pole we had prepared earlier. This fastening is achieved by drilling a hole into the pointed end of the pole in a size which corresponds to the diameter of the harpoon iron shaft, in this case, 3/8 inch. Epoxy is smeared in the hole and onto the end of the iron shaft, and the shaft is inserted in the hole and left for some time to set up. While we are waiting, I beg you direct your attention to the image below:

On the right is an original, old harpoon iron. You will know, having memorized all of the details of Mr. Lytles informative website, that the shaft of a true harpoon iron is welded onto a split metal cone; the iron thus fashioned is then pulled down tightly over the pointed end of the wooden pole. Since our harpoon is but a clever replica, so must the appearance of this metal cone be replicated cleverly, and that is achieved thusly: a small "skirt" of ragboard has been painted our antique silver color, and is nailed onto the wooden pole in the appropriate position. Once the pointed portion has been wound in marline or cording of some sort, all but the very edge of the "skirt" will be visible, and the eye assumes that the skirt edge is but a smaller part of the whole cone, and the illusion is complete. Below I have begun to wind the pointed portion of the pole in Genuine Stockholm Tarred Hemp Marline style 6/3, which is available from American Rope and Tar. The tarred marline is really wonderful stuff that feels and smells great, but it is not particularly cheap. I simply had to try the marline for myself, but on a previous harpoon, I had used raffia-wound wire that had been varnished a rust color found in the floral arrangement section of my local craft emporium; It cost maybe $1.20 a roll, and a roll was enough to complete at least 2 harpoons. Below is an image of the harpoon wrapped with the craft-store raffia wrap (notice I hadn't employed the "painted sleeve" cone trick on this harpoon). It actually looks very authentic when compared to the old harpoon iron wrapping on the comparison image used previously.
And below is the most recent harpoon wrapped with the Tarred Marline:
And a side by side comparison:
Finally, I acquired from the local hardware store, 8 feet of 1" manilla rope (at 50 cents a foot), wrapped it twice around the shaft and tied that off in an eye splice, which is a sort of braided knot used to splice together 2 pieces of rope. Learn how to do it here. The rope then continues down the pole, attached at 2 points with lengths of the marline or raffia cord as illustrated, and ends with a loop formed by braiding another eye splice.
Finally... our completed harpoon! The one on the right is the model I had crafted earlier bearing the "temple toggle" style harpoon head. I Thank You sincerely for joining me in creating this fine "old" relic, and do hope you will contact me with any comments or questions, should any arise!