[mikec]

I've made several powderhorns with scrimshaw. The only one I ever did with color was a black horn with green celtic design. For the green I used artists oil paint. It takes some time to dry since it's an oil paint. I didn't put any sealer over it but you may want to if it's going to get a lot of wear. All the others were on white horn with black india ink.

 

[mikec]

No rotary tools. All hand work and tedious! I had an old needle file that I broke the handle off of, good hard steel. I sharpened a point on it and attached a wood handle. It's about the size of a pencil. So I draw the design on the horn in pencil and then scratch the design in with the sharp steel point. Then I rubbed in the oil paint and rubbed off any excess. So after you rub off the excess the paint remains in the scratches. Straight green was too dark so I blended it with white paint to make it a lighter color. Came out pretty good. I got real interested in celtic knotwork designs. It's a blend of my own designs plus some stuff from the book of kells. So if you're looking to color your scrimshaw the oil paint works pretty good. Just use regular artists paints in the tubes like you find at a crafts store. A guy wanted me to make that for him but he never came back for it so I still have it

I like your dodo bird, that's a good carving!