Anouk Johanna, a native of Holland, lives and works in California where she has built a successful career as a scrimshandler, jewelry designer and fine artist.

Anouk is most known for her teddy bear portraits which she meticulously engraves "freehand" on fossil mammoth and walrus ivories. She then paints the engraved images with inks she makes up herself especially for scrimshaw on fossil ivories to obtain the brightly colored look that so much characterizes her work. Anouk signs each piece of jewelry and numbers the large brooches and some of the smaller ones. She only uses genuine and rare (legal) fossilized mammoth and walrus ivories of the highest quality excavated by natives in Alaska and Siberia. Although teddy bears are one of Anouk's specialties, she also creates custom designs depicting pets and other imagery on request.

Her work featured throughout this site is complemented by her whimsical watercolors of bears as well as portraits of pets and people. 

To see more of Anouk's designs, please click on the images below.

One-of-a-Kind

Display pieces

Try not to touch the engraved surface too much (or let others run their fingers over it), as the oils in your skin can cause the colors to turn yellow or tan. If the piece gets wet, just allow it to air dry without wiping and it should be fine.

I also recommend to keep it out of direct sunlight. The pigments I use were chosen for their permanence, but sunlight will degrade all pigments eventually. Enjoy your scrimshaw pieces. Anouk