Fur Lovers, this one is furrrrr EWE.

Meet Kifli the cat, she is the mascot to my Transylvania life.  Here she is pulling her best calendar kitty pose amongst a bed of sheep and rabbit furs.

In the last 15 months my life has taken me into a direction leading to all things Hungarian.  This can be traced to the Hungarian man I met and fell head over heels in love with who lives in a small city near Brasov in Transylvania.  It's technically in Romania but for all intents and purposes the people, animals, and culture I am discussing here are strictly Hungarian.  

When driving around over there it's impossible not to see herds of sheep from the road.  Shepherds and the flocks they maintain are a major part of the culture and traditions in Transylvania.  Sheep are raised for meat, cheese and fiber products; many villagers, during the Spring and Summer months, will send their sheep off with professional herders who tend to them and take them over vast green spaces to graze.  The villagers know that their animals are well cared for and when the shepherds bring them back they also get some cheese!  

I'm oversimplifying this two way relationship and how beneficial it is to all parties involved, including the land.  To read more, check out this very elegantly worded piece written by Paul White on his website Wild Transylvania: Walking with Shepherds.

The man who brought me to this enchanting part of the world has familial ties to sheep keepers, butchers, and even the tanners.  Through my visits with him I've gotten to see (as well as smell, touch and taste!) parts of this full circle first hand.  Here are some hides I brought back from my last trip:

Now let me back up to my trip.  Here is the view from the courtyard at the tannery.  It's run by a family near Brasov and they live on the premises which are deceptively sprawling.

One of the hide rooms. This guy is busy.  Cows, wild boars, sheep, goats, rabbits, all byproducts of food sourcing.  

More hides.  You may notice some non traditional game furs here and there, like fox and mink, beaver, etc.  I'm honestly not sure if those specimen are used for food or not (in the U.S. it's frowned upon to eat some of these critters but I know in parts of the world fox meat is completely acceptable) so I am choosing to focus on the sheep, as this is what I have become somewhat intimate and familiar with.

Part of the tannery serves as a sewing and crafting studio for manufacturing hats and garments.  As you will see, sheepskins are ubiquitous in this part of the world, and for good reason:it gets really, really cold in Transylvania.  Therefore sheepskins are on car seats, work seats, beds, floors next to beds, couches, basically anything you put your butt on.  And they work!  I am amazed at the heat one hide can generate when sat upon.   This is also why they make such good hats and coats.

Another sewing machine in his studio, also with a seat covered in sheepskin.  You may notice there is no shortage of appreciation for the female form here.  

Hat blocks for days.  A multidisciplinary Renaissance man, this one.

Some examples of his millinery craftsmanship:

Shop cats:

A leather sewing machine, the type which I have been coveting since my first trip over there last year.  These heavy little wizards make joining fur and leather into tidy little seams a snap.  

Needless to say, I have been completely overwhelmed with inspiration and the timing couldn't be more ideal as I've been wanting to take my craft, and Diamond Tooth, into a more luxury fur goods direction.  While I've stepped back somewhat from all the taxidermy I was once so immersed in I've had time to recalibrate my thoughts on what part of creating brings me pleasure, and I'm exploring the joys of tactile art.  I love working with materials that are nice to touch and have always been intoxicated by the feeling of fur on my skin.  Perhaps this is the time to explore more luxury home goods pieces, along with the couture hats, bags and wearables I have made my mark with.    All this is to say I brought home an entire suitcase full of fur and have listed a few for sale on my Etsy page.  I am also going to create a queen sized bed set (bed spread and two pillows) out of sheepskin and see what kind of interest it generates.  Stay tuned!

 For now, if you're keen on having a piece of an age old Hungarian tradition in your own home, please don't hesitate to check out these items I've listed for sale now, like this lush black hide:
Black Tsigai Sheep on Etsy

Or this soft as a cloud Butter Pecan Hide:

 Maybe Chocolate Spots suit your home better:

 Perhaps a small Oreo Crumble hide for your child's bed:






 Try not to take your clothes off and roll around on this cream and coffee spotted hide:



These last two hides aren't for sale; they were gifted to me by my new in-laws and may be subject to future colorant experimentation!

 If solid creamy white is your preference, I got you covered there too:

Happy grazing!

Jive Turkey

I just finished up a very unique commission that took months longer than anticipated:My client wanted a pair of turkey legs from her brother's farm to be mounted and embellished with the intent of using the toes/talons to hang her jewelry from.

 Of course I was in love with the idea from the very start, but when she brought me the legs I was shocked.  While my turkey mount experience is limited at best, I have handled legs before.  They are usually large, but not much more meaty than a large rooster. This turkey was a monster!  The feet were big enough to wrap around a small child's arm and meaty enough to make for a meal on their own.  

I made slices along the side of each talon to access the meat so I could flesh it out.  For traditional standing mounts where the turkey would be standing on an environment, foot pad side down, this is an easy job, but I had to keep in mind that the underside of these feet would be one of the focal points of the finished piece and therefore the cuts had to be neat and ultimately concealed.

I filled the foot in with clay where I had removed the flesh, sculpted it back into shape and wired the cuts shut so it could dry a bit in the right position.  After the clay had firmed up I lined up the skin on either side of each cut and used superglue to seal them back up.  I left the pair out to dry and cure a bit more, and perhaps it was the humid end of Summer climate but it took two months for them to get to a point where I could begin the finishing work. I then blended an epoxy clay into the "scars" and textured & painted them.  When I was done, the cuts were blended in so well I can barely find them!

Next came mounting on a custom plaque and embellishing, my favorite part!

I fancy myself a bit of an alchemist when I'm taking vintage gems, some old jewelry of my own and marrying it with those either gifted to me or found on the street during my daily journeys, and giving them a new purpose.  They go from being dormant and underappreciated to vibrant pieces of interactive art!

Since they were designed to hold jewelry, I gave them a test run with some of my own pieces before hadning off to my client.

Turkey legs as jewelry holders.   I adore my clients!

Double Rattlesnake Dreams

Last July two brothers brought me a pair of rattlesnakes that they'd caught together hunting near Philadelphia.  Don't tell them but this was only my second snake job, after a tragically botched one 3 years ago.  I accepted the commission in a very casual way and it didn't occur to me until the snakes were in my possession that I needed to exercise extreme caution in handling them since I could easily puncture my finger on a fang and be on the receiving end of a posthumous, deadly, venomous snake bite.  

Both rattlers looked very similar but I think I've managed to separate the two in these photos; the first few shots are a smaller, slightly darker one, and the larger, lighter one is pictured after the carcass/meat images.

The tails are really fun, I wish I'd been able to keep one for myself to wear somehow.  They sound great.

So, about that venom.  Did you think I would let such potent stuff go to waste?

After doing some research I became completely fascinated by snake venom and its applications; I found a story about a man who has been injecting himself with venom for years and swears on its health benefits.  I also found some sketchy information about a high end luxury anti-aging cream that had (synthetic) snake venom in its base.  Apparently it acts as a topical Botox.  I have the venom in a little vial in my freezer; who knows what I'll actually do with it.

I also learned that a snake can still bite and kill a human even after its head has been severed, and that its heart will beat after being pulled out of it's body.  What tenacious, ferocious creatures.  It inspires pride in being born in the Snake Year.

Of course I wouldn't let that meat go to waste either.  After the plethora of critters I have eviscerated for food prep, I find snakes to be the quickest and easiest.  It's literally as simple as just puling the intestines like a loose yarn on a sweater.

I marinated the meat in whiskey, honey and ginger chunks for about a day.

Lucky me, I was invited to a BBQ that evening and I got to throw that snake on the grill and share it with a bunch of folks.  A pleaser, even if it was a lot of work to chew around those millions of ribs.

Next began the arduous process of altering the foam mannequins to accommodate the skin and positioning desired by the clients.  Hours of cutting, gluing, filing, sanding, measuring, test fitting, measuring again, etc.

And then presto!  A couple of mounted rattlesnakes.

I ran into a couple of issues with the seams, but aside of that I'm quite pleased with the work.

The positioning was very challenging to me since it required a good deal of twisting the skin.  Here's a secret- It's easy to hide a wrinkle in furry mounts, because it's covered in fur.  Not so with reptile skin.  Fortunately snake skin is tough and just requires a little patience and finesse.

~And that'ssssssssss a wrap~