Mike Burke
Engrave Horn Jewelry

After receiving matching Kentucky rifle kits from our father as boys, my brother Chris and I were told we’d need powder horns to go with them.  Never one to extol the virtues of pre-made anything, Dad said they’d be better if we made them ourselves.  A week or so later, two gnarly, raw cow horns arrived in the mail from Dixie Gun Works of Union City, TN, and we began whittling and filing away in earnest.  After showing some initial promise, I ruined mine by drilling through the side, severely hindering its ability to keep out water. I finished Chris’, however, and though neither of us ever became great hunters, I discovered a love of tinkering, which I’ve had ever since.

Over the years, I’ve made dozens of powder horns, developing skills from engraving to metal work along the way.  After graduating from college, I moved to Boston and got a job doing costumes in the movies.  At the insistence of my friend Virginia, a costume designer by trade, I began engraving horn bracelets about a year ago, and expanded to pendants when a character on one of our shows needed a signature piece.  The compliments we received made the decision to pursue it further an easy one.

The bracelets and pendants begin as sections of natural cow horn, which are alternately turned or pressed to shape.  After some minimal polishing, they’re engraved and brushed with ink, filling the cuts that compose the design.  The process is identical to that used by colonial soldiers to carve their powder horns, and Nantucket sailors to decorate whales’ teeth and other mementos properly called scrimshaw.  Inspiration is drawn from 18th & 19th century naturalists’ illustrations, children’s books and printed ephemera from the same era.  As with the engraved keepsakes of the past, symbols, rather than words provide most of the charm, evoking meanings and memories as varied as the surface on which they’re carved.