Without you, I'm nothing.

 



My hands are the one part of my body of which my opinion will never be swayed by  magazine photo or trend. No matter how many chipped nails or cuts, my hands, to me, are the most beautiful part of my body.  Every day I thank each nimble little finger for all it does.  Just the sound of them typing right now brings me pleasure.



There are times when I'm doing super fine, detailed work, and I need to steady my hands because they tremble a little.  This could be the caffeine, or it could be a sign of looming hereditary issues on the horizon.  Whatever it is, I felt inspired to make a public declaration of my undying love for the best tools I could wish for, while they are in their prime.



People say that you don't know what you've got until its gone and I couldn't disagree more.  I can't think of one day that's gone by without me marveling at how fucking awesome it is to have eyes that see and hands that do what I tell them to, with grace and panache. Sight and touch are easily in the top five list of things for which I am most grateful.  So thank you hands, and thank you eyes, for making it possible to do what I was born to do.  I promise to take care of you as long as you take care of me.

 



 







 



 







 







 



 







 



 







 



 



 



 

And now for something completely different.

While taxidermy is my main squeeze, I have several mistresses.  I'd like to believe they all somehow relate to one another but to articulate that at this point would be impossible, so I'll just let them all exist for now, independently of one another.  I will say this, however: I am drawn to rituals.  Whether it's daily (stretching and facersize among the many habits I practice 365 times a year), weekly or monthly, I relish in rituals.  I feel like sharing this one with you now; I'd like to say it is weekly but when it all shakes out, the kombucha brewing time tends to fall every 7-10 days, depending on the temperature.



I like brewing kombucha because I am hooked on the stuff, and to buy enough to support my fix would require a new tax bracket and complimentary back braces for the guys who collect my recycling.  Plus I'm a control freak so I can make it exactly how I like without placing my taste buds in the hands of some gross corporation.



A friend of mine recently brought up the topic of legacies, and what we leave behind.  I am clueless as to what I could ever pass on or leave for those to remember me by but it did remind me of my kombucha culture, which I've been using since 2005.  I got her as the offspring from a friend who got hers from I don't know where, and since then my baby has produced hundreds of babies.  The thought that she will be around years after I'm dead and rotted, still making offspring, is a marvel to me.  It's as if I'm just one handler in the eternal lifespan of this blob.



Anyway, here's a short little video:

Crack is Whack, especially when it comes to antlers.

 



I was recently contacted by a friend of a friend of a friend with a Caribou mount that had suffered a cruel demonstration of gravitational force, resulting in a chipped and cracked antler.  When I stopped by to inspect it, it became quite clear this part had been broken before and undergone a sub-par repair job with mis-matching paint to boot.







 



What I did first was use an industrial strength epoxy bond to get the actual pieces back together.  After it had set, I recreated the original surface with a sculptural epoxy.  I finessed it with water and my fingers, then allowed it to dry.







The view from the back:







After completely drying, I did a little sanding (like my tween girl nail polish?) to eliminate any hidden bumps or uneven surfaces that didn't belong on the antler.







 



Next came the painting.  A few coats, some blending, some magic, and voila!  Repaired antlers.







And that, my friends, is just another one of the things this taxidermist does.

Here's a hint....or seven

I did a search for a video with the word "hint" and this came up. Listen while you read; it's invigorating ( I think she's saying, "I love wearing taxidermed birds on my head Beth Beverly should be rich and famous by now she is a god in my heart"):







So I've lapsed a bit in my writing and for that I feel bad.  This tends to happen when I work on multiple projects all at once; there is a period of holing up in my studio and then a burst of online activity once it's all finished and photographed.  Another thing pulling at me in administrative issues.  Paperwork, licensing, biz shizz, etc.  It's time-consuming and profoundly mind numbing to me, but necessary.



So while I have no new pieces to report on, I have several works in progress, such as:







Can you guess what this mystery item is?  Come and see it and others like it at the Art Star Holiday Craft Bazaar next month!  Friday the 18th is the preview party; part with a few shekels and be the first to browse all the wares whilst sipping cocktails made with my favorite spirit, Root.  I'll also be peddling many of these:







and these:







Oh! and several pairs of these:







Along with these smaller trinkets I'll have fascinators, hats and brooches on hand so you, your roommate, your crush/lover/one night stand AND your mom will have something to fit them.  Be gifted!



Plus, I'll be debuting a very unique pair of  shoes.  Hint, hint:







Along with prepping for the bazaar, the PA Hunt Cup is next Sunday.  This is one equine event I have yet to dip my hooves into so I'm not sure what to expect, but you can bet I've got new hats in the works.  Fall themed, of course:











Speaking of hats, I've got two sweet ones, plus a brooch in the works for my next three Twenty4Twenty recipients.  One is a drag queen, another is an fitness goddess and the third is an accomplished and published huntress.  They are inspirations to me and  I get a kick out of their pieces living in my studio together while they come into their own.  Here's a hint of two:











On top of this, I've been forever preparing a custom form for my favorite client's cat.  I want it to be absolutely perfect so it's to my benefit that she is very patient.







There also some other miscellaneous client projects in the works, as well as sourcing materials for my entry in this years Rogue Taxidermy Competition.   More on that soon.



That's a wrap, yall.    And now I'm off to Mexico....again.

Devon Dressage? More like Bon Voyage!

It's been a hectic couple of weeks and I've neglected this blog.  Did anyone notice?  I hope so.  Anyway, I've been wrapped up in outside jobs like painting pumpkins for a corporate gig and transcribing VHS tapes of reality shows.   I do these things to support my taxidermy habit.   In other words, I work so that I can work.  It's exhausting but thankfully one of my many hats requires me to spend copious amounts of down time lounging on the Lido deck of cruise ships where I catch up on all my beauty rest.  In fact, I'm leaving for one of those trips in just a few hours, and I will soak up every drop of precious sleep that comes my way because once I hit dry land again, it's go time for holiday craft show prep, the annual Carnivorous Nights/MART competition and other projects in the works. Amongst all this hustle bustle I attended Devon Dressage last week.  This week long event features a ladies hat day and as you may recall I received accolades for my squirrel fascinator entry last year.  I believe that my work has improved significantly since then and was quite proud of this years entry, a black rooster bedecked with crystals and gems mounted in such a fashion so that it would appear to be curling up on the wearer's head, and providing bangs out of its wings.  Sadly, I have no pictures from the event but last night my friend Rachel came by for some wine and chat and a photo project so we snuck in a couple shots of the new rooster hat just for fun:



Pardon my dirty mirror; let  your eyes instead be dazzled by the giant cock on my head.











Anyway.  Devon Dressage.  I didn't win a thing. Nada!  Zilch!  Can you believe it?  I couldn't, but then I saw this guy was one of the judges and figured I should take his millinery opining with a sizable grain of salt.  I know I'm a winner and that's that counts, (or so mother always told me) so I gracefully let the other women take what I thought should be mine and spent the rest of the day in heaven with two dear friends, watching beautiful horses and insanely skilled riders perform the horse ballet known as dressage.



So now it's almost midnight and I have to decide if I should just stay up a few more hours or try to get a tiny bit of sleep.  I'm all packed with plenty of Diamond Tooth goodies in tow (hopefully this time will not be a repeat of DELTA= Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive) so I can properly saturate the high seas with my product.  Plenty of pictures and fun stories to follow, see y'all next week!



xoxo BB

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