#ok bedtime

[carrotkicks]

stop following me

#doodles #kyouka #demon snow #bsd #ahhh i have the feeling for soooo many drwings rn i feel so inspired to make stuff today #ok bedtime

[focsle]

I never did a long thing about scrimshaw, so it’s time! At 1 am, apparently.

I think scrimshaw is one of the most fascinating material goods to emerge from the history of the American whaling industry (which is the context I’m discussing here, though of course the artform exists across numerous eras and cultures outside this brief blip of nautical history).

It’s one way to see amatuer art that usually doesn’t often survive in other forms. To see the art project of an ordinary man who was bored and needed something to do with his hands. Others were highly skilled craftsman, creating intricate engravings or mechanically expert tools. The most common scrimshaw was images etched on sperm whale teeth. Sometimes those images came from the maker’s own imagination and sometimes they were copied illustrations. Ships & whaling scenes, women, mythical figures, and patriotic symbols make up the bulk of the visual language in those pieces that survive.

But alongside the teeth were all a manner of carved items: canes, candle holders, pie crimpers, children’s toys, sewing boxes, yarn swifts, corset busks. So much bone fashioned into quiet little homegoods. And it’s that contradiction within scrimshaw that fascinates me. The brutality of the industry, this ivory from an animal that frankly died terribly, that’s then softened into a little domestic item. An object that could have hours to years of work put into it. Some were made to be sold but many were made as gifts. In the long stretches of boredom at sea, in the lull between back-breaking work and life-threatening terror, scrimshaw gives a window into where the minds of these men continually turned. It shows where their hearts were and what they were holding on to over all the years they spent adrift in saltwater and blood and oil. That’s the poetry I see in scrimshaw. Pain and love and longing and creativity and playfulness all bound together in these complicated little pieces that found their way out of the hands of their anonymous makers to preserve a small part of their story.

Some scrimshanders names are known. Frederick Myrick is one of the most well known American whalers, not so much for the scope of his life (of which little is known) but for his scrimshaw. Born in Nantucket in 1808, he first went whaling in 1825 on the Columbus and then again on the Susan 1826-29. In the last few months aboard the Susan, Myrick engraved over 30 sperm whale teeth, all depicting the ship he was on (though there are a handful that depict other vessels). He signed and dated nearly each one. These pieces are often referred to as ‘Susan’s Teeth’ now, and when one comes up at auction it’s not unusual for it to sell for six figures.

Many of the teeth Myrick scrimshawed included an inscribed couplet of his devising: A dark wish for luck that succinctly gets at the violent and unstable heart of American whaling.

“Death to the living, long life to the killers Success to sailor’s wives, and greasy luck to whalers”

Sometimes large scenes were etched on panbones as well.

Moving from scrimshaw on teeth and jawbones, pie crimpers are some of the more common sculptural items. Popular motifs included animals (dogs, snakes, and unicorns/hippocampus are big), body parts (mostly clenched fists or lady’s legs), and geometric designs.

Others were more mechanically complicated, such as automatons and children’s toys with moving parts and gears. Here’s one of a small rocking sailboat, perhaps made for someone’s child or younger sibling.

Sometimes a particular creative fellow created something more eccentric, like this wild writing desk kit fashioned out of a carved panbone and sperm whale teeth.

Another frequently scrimshawed object was a corset busk that would be slid into the front of the garment in order to maintain the posture. A rather private item compared to others. And one with a very on-the-nose message of wearing close to one’s heart the memory of someone who’d be gone for 3-4 years, who might never come home again. On some level, so many of these daily objects whispered ‘forget me not’, ‘think of me while I’m gone’. 

There’s something tender to all the various domestic items that were fashioned on the job so long and far from home, but it’s the yarn swifts that really captivate me. They were one of the most complicated pieces of scrimshaw to make, with over one hundred different pieces that would have to be carved. It could take someone the length of the voyage (2-4 years) to complete a single one. Unlike teeth which were comparatively very quick to make and were frequently intended to be sold, it’s very unlikely that a swift was made with the aim of selling it because of the significant labor that went into it. They were almost certainly all gifts, and very special ones at that. Every time I see one I can just feel the love towards its intended recipient radiating off of it.

Scrimshaw captures a specific snapshot of a moment in time. On a broader scale it’s a surviving reminder of a bloody industry that flared up and winked out, preserved in the form of a long-lost ship and the spout of a long-dead whale inked on a yellowing tooth. But that snapshot also reveals the emotional world of the men who were caught up in such an industry: what they valued, what they thought about, what they missed, and what they wanted to be remembered of them.

#awhalin #long post // #animal death // #ok bedtime

[creatureantics]

post work wolfwood i like when he gets little injuries in the manga he just lets heal on their own

#trigun #wolfwood #nicholas d. wolfwood #trigun stampede #trigun maximum #art.jpg #like we rly only see him get like. hurt Bad in tristamp and need vials pretty often #but in trimax he’s a lot more conservative with them #I kinda like a mix of this in him like he’s casual about letting himself get hurt #but it’s not like he’d use a vial for something that’s not gonna kill him or interrupt a fight #ok bedtime

[missingn000]

wanted some new kashimo manga colorings to get used to the vol 21 color scheme then decided to be the change i want to see in the world

#i haven’t done a manga coloring in years. please be nice to me #this was fun though honestly might try more #officially used to their color scheme. Officially like it #ok bedtime #hajime kashimo #jjk #my colorings

[no-moremusic]

sometimes girls just want 2 have fun and other times they want to see the hit fox drama 911 scene where buck is screaming for the car to stop and eddie hears this and almost immediately after a huge crash while his mind goes to the worst case scenario and he takes off running to get to buck because he cannot lose him like this he can’t lose him at all and when eddie gets to the scene out of breathe and buck is perfectly fine eddie realizes how devastated he would be if buck died and how buck shouldn’t go another second without knowing how truly and deeply loved he is for simply existing

#ok bedtime #buddie

[strqyr]

so instead of sleeping i wanted to try and do some math—horrible decision really, considering i'm not that good at it—to try and guess how long the last two episodes would be based on the average episode length we were given before the volume even started: 18:52.

(not that anyone else cares about this but i did the work so i must share lmao)

anyway. 18:52 is 18.867 minutes. the current total runtime (as of 8 episodes) is 2h 26m 51s = 146.85 minutes, which would make the current average 18.356 minutes.

now, if i've done my calculations right—let alone understood how math works to begin with—to get to the full season average, the combined length of the last two episodes would have to be about 42 minutes, give or take? considering that the finale is going to have longer credits (which are included in the total runtime), i think the assumption that both episodes are in the range of 19-20 minutes isn't too far off? i mean, if both episodes were 20 minutes long, then the average would be 18.685 minutes, so there needs to be additional minute or two somewhere, which the longer credits would account for.

so. yeah. if i'm wrong don't correct me, i want to live in a world where there's two long episodes ahead of us for a little bit longer 🙈

#ok bedtime

[pinkhairswagtourney]

hihi , welcome to the pink hair swag tourney ! this blog is dedicated to pitting pink haired characters against each other to determine the very best of the best !!

check out the carrd to learn more !!! [:

current tourney: pink hair swag tourney: niche edition

polls go up every other day at ~9PM EST <3

#finally got around to making a carrd for the blog-- it's about time !!! #intro #also i am so sleepy . so there might be spelling errors or incorrect urls . please lmk if something is wrong !! #ok bedtime

[kittrrrr]

Started planning out another LU fic. I haven't even finished planning my first one! But I was like "why doesn't wild have more animal compains" and now it's going to be a fic. If I somehow finish and still have motativion *gasp* I'll do it for TOTK too.

#legend lu #loz #link to the past #linked universe #lu #lu hyrule #zelda botw #botw #botw link #lu wild #lu twilight #legend of zelda #ok bedtime

[revenantghost]

Ough, mykingdom for not being triggered right before bed EVER NIGHT

#I was on track to go to bed at a decent time when I wanted to check up on a friend #And boy it went horribly #Why I gotta be stupid at tetrible #Blahg #Typing this out to try and get it out of my head so maybe I can sleep #I've been so frail I was wondering how I was gonna survive the craft show in the first place #Now I've got no idea #But I need to try and sell stuf #BAH I HATE LIFE #Ok bedtime #Yadda yadda

[spectral-coyote]

huh? wha?

#coyote art #*POINTING* NEW CHARACTER #i may render this if i still like it tomorrow #mmh spoilers #ok bedtime

[tradetobest]

another doodle of these two

#my art #connor mcdavid #leon draisaitl #maybe wolf leo has my sleepy self in a chokehold. maybe #ok bedtime

[focsle]

Mr. Chappell, like so many of these other whalers, assumes a “Reader”. It’s meeee, lad.

“Sunday August 7th

Beautiful weather all day Wind W. by S.W.

The rising sun is a shight to be admired anywhere but particularly at sea If I could tell of its beauties or describe them it would be a source of pleasure but I cannot I think if you was here I say you I mean any one that never saw the sight at sea would agree with me though it does not shine upon treese and pretty flowers and bring to view the rich and varigated landscape cenary as at home yet to stand upon the ships deck and nothing but an immense circle of water around us as far as the eye can reach and the broad expansive heaven is above “blue above and blue below” till the sun makes a red spot in the east and puts the finishing touch to the picture No wonder the poet said. Welcome delightfull morn. Who could help it Who could help it on the Sabbath day Latt 34 about”

#ok bedtime #cooper chappell #awhalin

[librapropaganda]

ALL FOR YOUR SAKE

BECAME THE VERY THING THAT I HATE

I LOST MY WAY

SPINNING IN AN ENDLESS FIGURE 8

#em #ok bedtime

[n0phis]

You would be cancelled for liking myct

ive gotten 4 asks for it and every single one is being a mcyt fan LMAO cmon im capable of atrocities equivelant to and/or worse than just mcyt

#tham talks #ok bedtime #citizen nonsense

[puppybong]

mercury falling son or all flash 2007 daughter

#b #Ok bedtime

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

arjuna sex

#ok bedtime #my post