Archive for the ‘taxidermy’ Category
Posted by resonanteye on 08/01/2012
How to clean animal remains you find that still have a bit of meat on them:
Wear disposable gloves.
- Put them on a piece of window screen that is twice their size, and wrap them up in it. Fold over the edges to close it like a pocket, leaving a one inch opening on one end for flies and other insects to get in.
- DO NOT BOIL OR SIMMER BONES. Cooked bones can and will ROT! Boiling breaks the fibers that hold bone together, making them brittle, and thinning them. Let nature do the work for you! (and keep the stink outside!)
- Hang the corpse-pocket up outside. You want it up out of reach of cats and dogs, but low enough that you can reach it. I hang remains from a tree limb near my house. You can also wrap the corpse this was and then bury it a foot deep or less. Either way, insects will do the cleaning for you. This will not work in winter though.
- wait a few weeks, less if it is hot/humid. check on your developments. at some point the bones will be fully exposed, and all meat will have been picked away by insects.
- soak the bones in HOT water and blue Dawn dish detergent. Change out the water/detergent mix every day. It can cool off overnight, just use hot water to refill it each day. Use about two cups of Dawn per gallon of water. Do this until the bones are not yellowish with fat anymore.
- Scrub the bones in cold water with more dish soap. Then soak again in HOT water, mixed 1:1 with regular old store-type peroxide. YOU DON’T NEED BLEACH; BLEACH WILL MAKE THE BONE CRUMBLY AND WEAK, AND SOFTEN IT. Peroxide and hot water will disinfect just as well, when used in conjunction with the soap soak. refill/continue soaking until the bone is as white as you’d like. I find that it usually takes three water changes to get the ivory-cream tone I prefer.
- Dry the bones thoroughly, NOT IN THE SUN. Then spray with a coat of matte UV protectant. Sun exposure, like bleach, degrades and weakens bone.
- The best way to hang a skull is to string it on thick, soft twine through the orbital bones, then hang that on a hook on a mountboard. I like to attach the jaw as well, and pose and articulate bones- I’ll go over that stuff in a later post.
TEAL DEER:
DON’T FUCKING BOIL OR BLEACH BONES! IT DESTROYS THEM!
How to disinfect feathers (legal ones- domestic and game birds)
Wear disposable gloves.
- Figure out if it is a land or water bird. Water birds have oil in their feathers, land birds do not.
- Spray with alcohol(land bird) or tea tree oil (water bird) and let dry.
- Soak a paper towel with full-strength hand sanitizer, and wipe feather gently, in the direction of growth. Soak the feather well.
- Let stand overnight.
- Using hot water, wipe the feather down again. Let dry. Use oil or a damp cloth to smooth the feather to shape it again.
- VOILA.
- To dye land-bird feathers, use translucent, lightfast inks (FW, or the like) and wipe ink onto feather surfaces in the pattern you want. let it stand until the ink has dried, then wipe gently with a damp rag.
- I’ll go into dying waterbird feathers in a later post, there are more steps required (oil-based, remember!)
TEAL DEER? MOST FEATHERS ARE ILLEGAL, DON’T BE A DUMBASS.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in !!!~pictures~!!!, !!!~posts with lists in them~!!!, art, caveman art, DIY, health and safety, how-to, morbid art, oregon living, questions, step by step, taxidermy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by resonanteye on 07/01/2012
For the creepy home, or those who have raccoon as their totem. Ready-to-hang.
This is a salvaged raccoon skull. I do not know how he died, as he is nature-found. He’s been cleaned, sanitized, and then stained and painted with oil pigment, and mounted firmly in a box filled with dried sweetgum pods, raccoon ribs, coyote teeth (humanely collected), and cornered by hog teeth and bird bones. Everything secured with cured bone glue.
he will ship in a well-protected box within a box.
The box is thin pine, backed with felt, signed on the reverse.
approximately 10×10″.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in !!!~pictures~!!!, caveman art, morbid art, original art, stuff for sale, taxidermy | Tagged: art for sale, assemblage, macabre art, raccoon skull, real skull, shadowbox, skull mount, taxidermy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by resonanteye on 07/01/2012
trickster, coyote skull. $160 including shipping.
Coyote skull totem, the skull was reclaimed from a road strike.
Cleaned, degreased, sanitized, painted, and stained with oil pigments and mounted on burgundy felt in a light ornate frame, with cicada shells from the Ozarks, tiny birch cones, feathers, deer knuckles, and possum toe bones.
Frame is just over 8×11″, skull stands out about three inches from it. Ready to hang, signed on the back by the artist.
He had a very dry, kind energy to him. I could tell this animal had led a charmed life (until the end) and felt better putting a warm color in this piece. The other animal bones in this piece were collected right alongside him, under some plum trees by the blue highway here.
I feel that he may have been a humorous and crafty animal. I hope I’ve done well by him.
Piece is backed with heavy paper and will ship well-protected in much packaging, price includes tracking and insurance- no international shipping on this guy, sorry. US only.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in !!!~pictures~!!!, art, artwork, caveman art, morbid art, stuff for sale, taxidermy | Tagged: coyote skull, macabre, morbid art, real skull, skull, skull mount, taxidermy for sale | Leave a Comment »
Posted by resonanteye on 06/30/2012
turkey skull mount, $130 including shipping
turkey skull shadowbox assemblage with objects: driftwood, human molar, found feathers, and pebbles, about 6×9″ and 3″ deep, oil paint and bone glue used in construction.
Where I live, wild turkey abound. This skull came from a hunting neighbor- they ate the turkey, but would have discarded its skull. The molar came from a dear friend of mine who had many teeth removed all at once.
The feathers come from a neighbor’s chicken run, and the pebbles and driftwood I collected at Ona Beach on the Oregon coast, west of my home. The seedpods and nut husks were collected in the southeastern US, while I was traveling.
The snail shells were collected at Marys Peak, Oregon, and the single bone on top is from a household pet- a cat, who died of age. The human molar belonged to a friend and has been sanitized.
All items have been cleaned, degreased, sealed and sanitized, then stained or dyed before inclusion in this box.
cost includes packaging, shipping with tracking and insurance.
Insurance and delicate packaging to ensure safe arrival are included in the cost of shipping. I cannot ship this internationally due to import/export laws, sorry.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in !!!~pictures~!!!, art, caveman art, morbid art, stuff for sale, taxidermy | Tagged: art, art for sale, hunter, macabre, morbid, skull, skull mount, taxidermy, weird art, wild turkey | Leave a Comment »
Posted by resonanteye on 06/30/2012
dog wishes taxidermy mount
$150 including shipping
an old, worn, found dog skull properly cleaned, stained, and painted. mounted simply in a birch box with driftwood and starling legs; upon its snout is a wishbone. sealed with matte uv spray and secured with twine and bone glue.
box is approx 10×10″
I had a strong feeling that this dog led a very difficult life; when found, the skull was worn, ragged at the edges, as if it had been sawn or gnawed at. I felt that if I could have given this dog a wish while it lived, I would have.
Of course I cannot be sure of the provenance or history of the animal; I can only speak to the feeling I had, that while I worked on it with love and care and caution, it felt glad, and appreciated the way I worked with it.
process description for this piece:
This skull took a few months to process. using an insect-cleaning method, and then antiseptic and degreasing soaks repeated over time. I use luthier’s bone glue, which I heat and cure for thickness, to mount everything. All parts of this piece are archivally preserved, sealed, and clean.
Cost includes shipping, packaging, handling, with tracking and insurance via USPS. No international shipping, US only.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in art, caveman art, morbid art, original art, stuff for sale, taxidermy | Tagged: dark, dog skull, macabre, morbid art, real skull, skull art, skull mount, taxidermy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by resonanteye on 06/30/2012
skunk skull mount, $140 includes shipping
a very simple assemblage in an approximately 10×10″ square birch shadowbox without glass-
a cleaned and sealed skunk skull, stained and painted with oil based pigments, cradled upon a geometric nest of maple pods which are secured with bone glue.
This skull was wild-collected, and I do not know how he died.
I know that I did not kill him.
The maple pods are fuzzy, and yes they form a swastika, which represents in this case the four winds, not anything negative.
If you’d like to read more about the ritual use of this symbol throughout non-western history, here is a good link to more information.
Price includes handling, packaging, tracking, insurance, and shipping. NO international shipping on this guy, sorry. US only.
shipping cost includes packaging and insurance to prevent damage to the pods or skull.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Posted in !!!~pictures~!!!, art, caveman art, morbid art, stuff for sale, taxidermy | Tagged: four winds, morbid art, real animal skull, skull mount, skunk skull, swastika reclamation, taxidermy, totem | Leave a Comment »
How to clean animal remains you find that still have a bit of meat on them:
How to disinfect feathers (legal ones- domestic and game birds)
