The Better to See You WIth, My Deer...

Here are some photos of a pair of deer hoof candle holders I finished and shot today.  The deer was harvested by a hunter who is using all the venison and passed the hide onto be soft tanned to make a rug.  The legs are a nice by product I was happy to collect. I will be listing these on my etsy page shortly so if they strike your fancy, claim them!

 The bases and candle cups are from an antique silver set; this design is a diversion from previous candle holders in which the hooves themselves served as the base and allows the foot to point in a more elongated ans elegant fashion.

 Spooky angle shot:

 The hoof keratin has been polished and poled to bring out its natural luster:

  Do I sound like an infomercial?  I apologise, I swear my passion for this piece is genuine.  They're also taller than any of my other candle holders sets which makes them ideal for a more formal table setting.

Mrs. Friendly

Oh, hello there:

 Meet Mrs. Friendly, the much loved pet chicken of a client who wished to have her immortalized.

 Apparently, Mrs. Friendly was an ornery, no nonsense hen with an intense glare.  She suffered no fools.

 She also had asymmetrical hips, with a pronounced hump above her right hip bone/back area.  I'm guessing this may have caused a limp which must have only added to her cranky old lady aura.

 I altered a manufactured bird form by adding foam to the back section and carving it to match the size and shape of the hump as seen on the carcass, and posed the body to recreate her gimpy stance as exactly as possible, using photographs from life as reference.

 Hump:

 Don't mess with this chick lady hen.

So long, Mrs. Friendly.  Enjoy the afterlife.

Speechless

 I mounted my dream creature recently, a peacock.  Here he is, just photos, because who needs words when your eyes are being massaged by this regal creature?

 

Vetabrae Necklace

I've been in possession of a bag of fox vertebrae for some time now; about a year ago I articulated a few with the intention of making a cool neck piece.  I finally finished it today.

 

Once I'd decided the exact design, I needed to source the beads and hardware.  The beads are glass and I wore them all around my wrists for a week to infuse them with my own energy and also because glass beads around my wrists feel so good.

 This necklace is meant for a long dainty neck, as you can see in these photos its a wee snug on me.  Perhaps there is a young elfin lass who this piece is calling out to?

 The clasp is a no frills, magnetic slide:

 Magic.

C'est Tout!

Hawk Eye

In what has been a long an arduous process (not for me, really, all I had to do was sit back and wait) the folks at Bartram's Gardens acquired a Federal Salvage Permit so that I could become their on call taxidermist for such fantastic specimen as the Sharp Shinned Hawk I'm writing about today, a sweet little Vireo and above all, a Great Blue Heron.  The Heron was the impetus for obtaining my services and the permit, but these birds came with the territory, so to speak.
Because I'd never mounted a hawk or a heron, and this is for educational purposes, and I just plain adore Bartram's Gardens I am providing taxidermy services for free and just ask that my supplies are covered.
Even so, I don't feel any less flat about my lackluster job on this hawk.  I did the best I could but what I didn't realise going in was that while structurally these birds are very similar to the hundreds of feathered specimen I've skinned and mounted over my years as a taxidermist, their feathers have a texture and lay pattern unlike anything I'd ever encountered.  I ought to have done more research.

 

You can see that instead of a tight, compact aerodynamic shape, his feathers look a little ragged, like he just took a roll in the hay or something.  I rehydrated him, used pins to painstakingly place every feather that wouldn't lay flat, wrapped him in hosiery and heat dried him (which has worked wonders for me on other misfit birds) to no avail.  After 6 months it's time for me to accept that I can't win them all.  And it's not terrible.  Just not perfect. 

 

 I am quite pleased with the feet though.  What gorgeous talons he has!  I guess I can't take credit for that, but I can for the positioning.

 The camera in untrained hands yields odd photos; I like how the flash kind of implies motion though.

 I've started noticing these hawks around Philly since I began working with this one.  They're such majestic creatures.  I was waiting for a bus out near the airport one morning, super early, as the dawn was just throwing open her closet and letting the blue spill out onto the sky, and saw one Sharpie sitting on a telephone wire.  Suddenly another flew out of nowhere and perched next to the first one, on the line.  I imagined them exchanging pleasantries and discussing what they might catch to eat that day, how yesterday's hunt had been, where some baby squirrels might be at, etc...

 And I took comfort in this fantasy conversation between the two hawks, thinking well, if they live hand to mouth and are never quite sure where their next meal is coming from, but confident nonetheless in their ability to acquire it, what's so wrong with an artist like me who is perpetually in the throes of of financial insecurity? 
Did I just pull the curtain back too much?  This is quite a revealing post. Back to the bird.

 So yeah, you can see the flaws, but I think he still looks quite regal.  It certainly has been an honor working with him.  The Blue Heron is on deck now, and believe me when I say I'm doing my research and planning every step with extreme focus and care.