Gus Milne

Gus is a New Zealand scrimshander based in Canterbury, working from his home studio.  His work has been displayed in exhibitions and galleries in New Zealand and sold to clients worldwide.  Gus won the Malvern Business Award 2022. The family ‘Cressy’ link, and close kin living on the peninsular, have led to a closeness with the area.

Born in Canterbury, NZ, Gus had an early interest in sailing ships and things nautical.  While living in the USA in the late 70s, he became involved in ship modelling and won several awards in multi-state competitions.

A self-taught artist (no-one teaches scrimshanding), Gus was introduced to scrimshaw by a close friend and collector in the early 80’s, and began collecting old whale’s teeth from auctions, second hand and antique stores.  In the meantime, he began developing his skills scrimshanding on beef bone.

Various visits to the ‘HMS Victory’, ‘USS Constitution’, ‘Charles W Morgan’ and other sailing ships around the world reinforced his knowledge of the old ships so essential in the art of scrimshaw.

Some of his greatest pleasures were the many scrimshaw galleries and museums that he visited in Hawaii, Marthas Vineyard, New Bedford and San Francisco, the homes of the ‘Whalers Art’.

He now works entirely on re-cycled ivory piano keys, extinct mammoth ivory and whale’s teeth, sourced sustainably (whaling fortunately ended in NZ on 21 December 1964 when the last whale was killed near Kaikoura).

He also works with silver, incorporating scrimshaw pieces into jewellery.

Website: www.cressyscrimshaw.co.nz