Modern Scrimshaw

Ah, the wonders of plumbing pipe. You can cut it, heat it, reshape it, sand it, stamp it and make it look like ivory. Pretty neat!

Materials

3" diameter PVC pipe

acetone

StazOn black ink pad

aluminum tape

brown shoe polish

black permanent marker

box

small knob

Tools

saw

toaster oven

hole saw

drill

sand paper

rubber stamps (mounted or unmounted)

old credit card or bone folder

scotch brite pad

Saw a 2 1/2" section off of a length of PVC pipe. Cut in half vertically. Remove any lettering with acetone.

Place the two halves in a toaster oven set to 250 degrees. Use a toaster oven dedicated to crafts. In just a few minutes, the PVC will be quite soft and flexible. Take it out of the oven and flatten with something like a book.

Place a 1 1/4" hole saw (the red thing in the above photo) in a drill and cut circles out of the flattened pieces. (or cut into squares and file/sand the corners to form circles) Smooth the edges and scuff up the surface a bit with the sandpaper.

Stamp designs with black StazOn ink.

When the black ink is dry, rub with brown shoe polish.

Cut the aluminum tape long enough to wrap around the circumference of the circle. Cut the tape 1/2" wide. Place the edge of the circle in the middle of the strip of tape. Wrap the tape around the circle folding it over the front and back. Press and burnish with an old credit card or bone folder.

Cover the tape with black marker. When it dries, buff with a scotch brite pad for a pewter look.

Above is a "before" and "after". The disk on the left has not received a coat of shoe polish and the tape hasn't been covered with black marker. The one on the right has had both treatments.

Drill a hole in the top of the box. From underneath, thread a bolt through the box, the disk and into the shank of the knob. Screw the knob down tightly.

Can you imagine these under the knobs on a dresser?