Kris Ballinger is an artist specializing in scrimshaw and pen and ink drawings. Her work has been seen across the country at juried arts and craft shows, in galleries, and her illustrations were featured on the Emmy-nominated PBS series, "Robbin Esther's Secret Box".
As a child growing up in Michigan, Kris enjoyed passing time by drawing in pencil, working mostly in black and white. In the early 70's she moved to California and made her living doing crafts, which she sold in the San Francisco Bay area. She started engraving scenes into the bamboo flutes she made and also cut sections of bamboo and made intricately engraved bamboo vases and vessels. In 1974 Kris moved to the hills of middle Tennessee where she lived on a farm with her husband, raised two sons, built a passive solar house, grew most of her own food and continued to do craft shows to make a living. In 1980, realizing that what she was doing on bamboo was similar to scrimshaw on ivory, Kris got some antique piano keys and went to work. Fossil ivory quickly became her favorite medium, but she also continued to work on bamboo, bone and antique piano keys.
Besides her love for scrimshaw and drawing, Kris is a musician. She plays guitar and sings in a band called The Cluster Pluckers out of Nashville, Tennessee. They have recorded 5 CD's, have been featured on several TV shows, and have played all over the country and toured in Europe and Japan. Kris has designed logos and t-shirts and other products for the band. To learn more about The Cluster Pluckers, visit their web site:
