French Ivory

Rick has given me quite a few pieces of "French Ivory" (a celluloid material popular in the early 1900s) that belonged to his aunts and grandparents. There are boxes, trays, brushes, frames, combs, shoe horns, little dust pans, manicure tools, and a bevy of other decorative "accoutrements."

If you aren't familiar with French Ivory, you can read about it here and see some examples here.

The piece I want to tell you about is a hand mirror that has been shuffled from one place to another, never finding a proper home. It somehow landed on the kitchen table (lately my office during this cold weather) and at around 3 am on a recent morning, I began tangling it. I used a Sakura® IDenti™-pen. It glides so smoothly and has a similar shine like the "ivory" I was tangling on . . . like liquid scrimshaw.

How fun.

Whilst in the mood, I went hunting in our house for more pieces and . . . .

So, fellow tangles, keep a look-out for some "French Ivory" pieces at your local antique shops, second hand stores, or in your parent's attic. It is not terribly expensive (I saw mirrors like this priced from $10 - $22 online; our local antique store has combs and shoehorns for less than $5). However, it will become a valued treasure after your tangles appear!

Now . . . where was that comb?

And here's a piece I have done for you, dear Tanglers.

We'll pick a name from the comments section (please make sure we can contact you somehow!) or else we have to choose another name.

- maria

Rick adds:
Pencils work just fine for drawing strings. Maria also discovered that our Tsukineko® Fabrico™ gray marker is great for shading as is a white Sakura GellyRoll™ for adding highlights:

This shoehorn was engraved with a monogram, so that's why bronx cheer is where it is!

Click images for larger views.