In short, VC is a community of hobbyists who collect animal bones and other natural curios (like furs, shells, insects, stones, mushrooms, feathers, etc). Because the hobby can be kind of bloody, someone let me know if it's too gross to have a public thread on (and please don't post or link to gory pictures).
Anyways. Some questions for you lovelies:
- what's your favourite thing to collect?
- how big is your collection?
- what was your coolest find so far?
- what's your favourite method of cleaning bones (if that's something you do)?
My collection's pretty small: a black bear skull, a raccoon with all his teeth but only half a cranium, a rabbit skull, a jar of salmon vertebrae, wolf claws, a mummified seahorse, antler and snake sheds, a squirrel tail, a crab, a big petrified mushroom, and lots of crystals/feathers/shells. I also have so many dead insects that I still need to pin, although to be totally honest I'm too scared of the parasitic wasp to touch it.
A regrettable memory: when I was ten I found a badger skull and an entire coyote skeleton in an abandoned quarry (y'know, the safest place for kids to be), but when I brought them home my mom told me they were gross and got rid of them. Sigh.
Maceration is my preferred method of cleaning bones but it just. smells so bad.
Tell me your scavenger woes and triumphs.
Anyways. Some questions for you lovelies:
- what's your favourite thing to collect?
- how big is your collection?
- what was your coolest find so far?
- what's your favourite method of cleaning bones (if that's something you do)?
My collection's pretty small: a black bear skull, a raccoon with all his teeth but only half a cranium, a rabbit skull, a jar of salmon vertebrae, wolf claws, a mummified seahorse, antler and snake sheds, a squirrel tail, a crab, a big petrified mushroom, and lots of crystals/feathers/shells. I also have so many dead insects that I still need to pin, although to be totally honest I'm too scared of the parasitic wasp to touch it.
A regrettable memory: when I was ten I found a badger skull and an entire coyote skeleton in an abandoned quarry (y'know, the safest place for kids to be), but when I brought them home my mom told me they were gross and got rid of them. Sigh.
Maceration is my preferred method of cleaning bones but it just. smells so bad.
Tell me your scavenger woes and triumphs.
Apparently, i've been doing vulture culture for years without knowing it :V
lol no but, althinght i don't consider myself a vuturer (i live in the city, so not much to colect asides from leaves and dead lizards...) I do enjoy colecting things such as rocks, shells and feathers. I actually still have many of the rocks and feathers i've found at trips (thought most where lost in spring cleansings. RIP you unfortunate victims of my mother's trash bag...).
Between my biggest findings if i can call them that, there is a fist-sized, withe, half translucent rock that i believe to have some degree of quartz on it (altought it's just a guess, i have never have it check by anyone really) and a zipplock bag filled of crow feathers from a trip overseas. partly because there aren't any on my areea but mostly because, i have to admit, i love crows
As for unfortunate experiences, the one i remember mos vivdly is also the one that convinced me from not picking up animal carcasses...I was on a trip to the beach when i was arround nine or so, and as usual i was picking up seashells. At some point i found a fish skull and a dead crab (or something that looked like a crab). I tought they looked nice, so i put them booth inside the plastic bag i used for seashells, and then put the plastic bag inside of my bagpack. The thing was, that after that we went back to the hotel, and until midday of the next day i didn't bother onto cheching the backpack, nor putting it in a cool place. The result: The skull and crab started deacomposing and i had to get rid of all of what i had looted, as well to this day the backpack still smells a bit like rotten fish. lmao
So yeah, i have never considered myself a vulture culture member (i have hardly ever heard anything from them to this point), but i do enjoy collecting things i find laying arround in nature, specially if i don't forget i picked them up and don't end up rotting on my purse ;v;
lol no but, althinght i don't consider myself a vuturer (i live in the city, so not much to colect asides from leaves and dead lizards...) I do enjoy colecting things such as rocks, shells and feathers. I actually still have many of the rocks and feathers i've found at trips (thought most where lost in spring cleansings. RIP you unfortunate victims of my mother's trash bag...).
Between my biggest findings if i can call them that, there is a fist-sized, withe, half translucent rock that i believe to have some degree of quartz on it (altought it's just a guess, i have never have it check by anyone really) and a zipplock bag filled of crow feathers from a trip overseas. partly because there aren't any on my areea but mostly because, i have to admit, i love crows
As for unfortunate experiences, the one i remember mos vivdly is also the one that convinced me from not picking up animal carcasses...I was on a trip to the beach when i was arround nine or so, and as usual i was picking up seashells. At some point i found a fish skull and a dead crab (or something that looked like a crab). I tought they looked nice, so i put them booth inside the plastic bag i used for seashells, and then put the plastic bag inside of my bagpack. The thing was, that after that we went back to the hotel, and until midday of the next day i didn't bother onto cheching the backpack, nor putting it in a cool place. The result: The skull and crab started deacomposing and i had to get rid of all of what i had looted, as well to this day the backpack still smells a bit like rotten fish. lmao
So yeah, i have never considered myself a vulture culture member (i have hardly ever heard anything from them to this point), but i do enjoy collecting things i find laying arround in nature, specially if i don't forget i picked them up and don't end up rotting on my purse ;v;
Edit: Forget it
CoronelCoscacho wrote:
Apparently, i've been doing vulture culture for years without knowing it :V
lol no but, althinght i don't consider myself a vuturer (i live in the city, so not much to colect asides from leaves and dead lizards...) I do enjoy colecting things such as rocks, shells and feathers. I actually still have many of the rocks and feathers i've found at trips (thought most where lost in spring cleansings. RIP you unfortunate victims of my mother's trash bag...).
Between my biggest findings if i can call them that, there is a fist-sized, withe, half translucent rock that i believe to have some degree of quartz on it (altought it's just a guess, i have never have it check by anyone really) and a zipplock bag filled of crow feathers from a trip overseas. partly because there aren't any on my areea but mostly because, i have to admit, i love crows
As for unfortunate experiences, the one i remember mos vivdly is also the one that convinced me from not picking up animal carcasses...I was on a trip to the beach when i was arround nine or so, and as usual i was picking up seashells. At some point i found a fish skull and a dead crab (or something that looked like a crab). I tought they looked nice, so i put them booth inside the plastic bag i used for seashells, and then put the plastic bag inside of my bagpack. The thing was, that after that we went back to the hotel, and until midday of the next day i didn't bother onto cheching the backpack, nor putting it in a cool place. The result: The skull and crab started deacomposing and i had to get rid of all of what i had looted, as well to this day the backpack still smells a bit like rotten fish. lmao
So yeah, i have never considered myself a vulture culture member (i have hardly ever heard anything from them to this point), but i do enjoy collecting things i find laying arround in nature, specially if i don't forget i picked them up and don't end up rotting on my purse ;v;
lol no but, althinght i don't consider myself a vuturer (i live in the city, so not much to colect asides from leaves and dead lizards...) I do enjoy colecting things such as rocks, shells and feathers. I actually still have many of the rocks and feathers i've found at trips (thought most where lost in spring cleansings. RIP you unfortunate victims of my mother's trash bag...).
Between my biggest findings if i can call them that, there is a fist-sized, withe, half translucent rock that i believe to have some degree of quartz on it (altought it's just a guess, i have never have it check by anyone really) and a zipplock bag filled of crow feathers from a trip overseas. partly because there aren't any on my areea but mostly because, i have to admit, i love crows
As for unfortunate experiences, the one i remember mos vivdly is also the one that convinced me from not picking up animal carcasses...I was on a trip to the beach when i was arround nine or so, and as usual i was picking up seashells. At some point i found a fish skull and a dead crab (or something that looked like a crab). I tought they looked nice, so i put them booth inside the plastic bag i used for seashells, and then put the plastic bag inside of my bagpack. The thing was, that after that we went back to the hotel, and until midday of the next day i didn't bother onto cheching the backpack, nor putting it in a cool place. The result: The skull and crab started deacomposing and i had to get rid of all of what i had looted, as well to this day the backpack still smells a bit like rotten fish. lmao
So yeah, i have never considered myself a vulture culture member (i have hardly ever heard anything from them to this point), but i do enjoy collecting things i find laying arround in nature, specially if i don't forget i picked them up and don't end up rotting on my purse ;v;
Oh god, that would smell unbelievably terrible. Your poor nose.
Pomkeki wrote:
As you can probably tell by my profile picture, I love the look of skeletons. The unfortunate thing is that I've never had the chance to actually collect any because I live with squeamish people. BUT IF I COULD I would love to collect horns, antlers, shells, claws, talons, many of the same things that you do. As far as skeletons go, I think bird skulls are some of my favorites along with wings, ribs, and of course the vertebrae and spinal cord.
I always wanted flowers preserved in a jar or necklace as well as a preserved octopus or jellyfish since they're so incredible but damn near impossible to get as pets.
My mom loves amber so I actually have quite a few things preserved in real amber such as a black scorpion, a dragonfly, and a blue butterfly that's close to the surface of the amber so you can see the color rather well. It's beautiful.
I've had quite a few feathers over the years, one of which was a red tail hawk feather that I turned into a quill, but my cat got a hold of it when he was still in his destructive kitten phase.
I love raw gems and crystals to death so I have a lot of those. I also have a few pearls from an oyster I found the one time I ever visited a beach. There was a woman in the area who would open oysters for you and turn the pearls into jewelry (if there were any), so I had a pinkish pearl put on a necklace with a tiny silver turtle holding it.
I'm curious what you keep the seahorse in, if anything.
Edit: I decided to look through my jewelry after this and it turns out I have a bear claw that I forgot about, so that's a thing.
I always wanted flowers preserved in a jar or necklace as well as a preserved octopus or jellyfish since they're so incredible but damn near impossible to get as pets.
My mom loves amber so I actually have quite a few things preserved in real amber such as a black scorpion, a dragonfly, and a blue butterfly that's close to the surface of the amber so you can see the color rather well. It's beautiful.
I've had quite a few feathers over the years, one of which was a red tail hawk feather that I turned into a quill, but my cat got a hold of it when he was still in his destructive kitten phase.
I love raw gems and crystals to death so I have a lot of those. I also have a few pearls from an oyster I found the one time I ever visited a beach. There was a woman in the area who would open oysters for you and turn the pearls into jewelry (if there were any), so I had a pinkish pearl put on a necklace with a tiny silver turtle holding it.
I'm curious what you keep the seahorse in, if anything.
Edit: I decided to look through my jewelry after this and it turns out I have a bear claw that I forgot about, so that's a thing.
Bird skulls are awesome. It's amazing how much of their body mass is just...floof. Actually, you just reminded me that atm I have a barred owl in the freezer that needs to be taken care of. That said, if you do pick up dead birds be very careful. There's a lot of laws against owning bird parts (including feathers).
The seahorse I don't have to keep anything in because it's mummified. But it would be really cool to have one as a wet specimen! Or an octopus, like you said. There's someone on Etsy who sells them, but they're a bit out of my price range, hah.
i have a small obsession with snake skins and dragonfly wings...but i have quite the collection of other things including a almost complete skeleton of a mouse that is my favorite (thet are cute when they are alive but i also love their bones) i will tread lightly around the gory details and just say some of my art also deals with this hobby and...decomposition...
buuuuuuut
anyways on a lighter note my collection is mostly insects and smaller animals with a few interesting shells and rocks i found and decided to keep also deer antlers from my trophy kills (you live with hunters it kinda sticks girl or not) and my 7 pointer rack is one of my favorite despite having more (shot a 9 pointer but my uncle has it despite my best efforts to argue against it but then again it wouldn't fit in my small house so i'm glad he took it) but the way the antlers formed amuses me it seems my back doorway is a hotspot for female black widow spiders so i have a few of them (3 to be exact and one male) i seem to have a knack for shinies (gems and coins as well as the odd piece of metal that catches my eyes) and i found a half an oyster shell with a flawed pearl in it (the shiny little thing caught my eye and the shell was really interesting so ima post a few pics)
it was upside down and the pearl was on the dark spot but when i picked it up and looked at the other side is when i decided to keep it...
buuuuuuut
anyways on a lighter note my collection is mostly insects and smaller animals with a few interesting shells and rocks i found and decided to keep also deer antlers from my trophy kills (you live with hunters it kinda sticks girl or not) and my 7 pointer rack is one of my favorite despite having more (shot a 9 pointer but my uncle has it despite my best efforts to argue against it but then again it wouldn't fit in my small house so i'm glad he took it) but the way the antlers formed amuses me it seems my back doorway is a hotspot for female black widow spiders so i have a few of them (3 to be exact and one male) i seem to have a knack for shinies (gems and coins as well as the odd piece of metal that catches my eyes) and i found a half an oyster shell with a flawed pearl in it (the shiny little thing caught my eye and the shell was really interesting so ima post a few pics)
it was upside down and the pearl was on the dark spot but when i picked it up and looked at the other side is when i decided to keep it...
Edit: Forget it
Pomkeki wrote:
Yersinia wrote:
As far as i am concerned, you could theorically keep a seahorse preserved in Formaldehyde, as many other creatures. You gotta be careful with it tought, I don't know how delicate the seahorse tissues are, but maybe if they're TOO delicate it may get ruined. But one time me and my father tried to preserve some jellyffish on it and, even when the last and smallest of them kind of ended right, we lost most of the jellyfish because the chemicals destroyed and cut the tissues of the cap.
Also, i guess you could preserve them with amber or resine? But once again i've only seen it with insects like scorpions or spiders, I don't know how well the tissues would react to it, pr if it would dry up in the prosess
Oor just raise your own and become a seahorse rancher? IDK if it'd work, but if so im 100% up to it :v
Pomkeki wrote:
I was primarily curious if you had the seahorse contained in some way to keep it safe, I'd be so afraid of ruining it, I'm sure it's delicate. I've actually come across that Etsy seller before. I wonder where they live? It seems like there's no shortage of octopus being thrown out in their area, it's kind of sad.
Hmm...perhaps they live by the ocean? I understand that a lot of organisms wash up on beaches.
CoronelCoscacho wrote:
As far as i am concerned, you could theorically keep a seahorse preserved in Formaldehyde, as many other creatures. You gotta be careful with it tought, I don't know how delicate the seahorse tissues are, but maybe if they're TOO delicate it may get ruined. But one time me and my father tried to preserve some jellyffish on it and, even when the last and smallest of them kind of ended right, we lost most of the jellyfish because the chemicals destroyed and cut the tissues of the cap.
Orrik_Zynn wrote:
i have a small obsession with snake skins and dragonfly wings...but i have quite the collection of other things including a almost complete skeleton of a mouse that is my favorite (thet are cute when they are alive but i also love their bones) i will tread lightly around the gory details and just say some of my art also deals with this hobby and...decomposition...
Yersinia wrote:
Wet preserving specimens sounds like a pain. I'm not sure where to buy formalin or ethanol or a hypodermic needle. The results look like they're really worth it, though! There's also this cool offshoot of it called diaphonizing where a chemical eats away the outer flesh but dyes the bones and muscles, so you're left with this nifty transparent specimen.
Meh, it's easier than it seems, not as much "chemical mumbo jumbo" and a lot more of pouring formalin bottles over stuff in buckets with water.
Still I asked to my dad bc i got curious, and preserving seahorses on formalin shouldn't be a problem! Apparently the jellyfishes that got ruined where the ones we had put in alcohol. However if you are going to use formalin, make sure to use salted wather, seawater, or saline solution in a proportion of 9 parts of water/solution and 1 part of formalin. As far as i am concerned you can find fisiological solution in any pharmacy, and i guess the formalin can be found in a quemistry? I haven't really had to buy any of it since then so idk really.
Also, i've seen diaphonizing before and it's beautiful!
, i've only seen it in frogs and snakes with only translucent muscles, but still the results are amazing. I have no idea how it's made tought
Edit: Forget it
Pomkeki wrote:
That looks so incredible! It reminds me of some fish I used to have that were naturally translucent. Now I feel like making a character who does things like that for a living, or maybe a slightly crazy collector. In fact, I bet a necromancer would be into vulture culture.
I was going to put Shea LaBeouf's video here but RPR doesn't have that function lol
No but really it sounds like a cool idea you should totally do it.
Woo vulture culture! 
Despite considering myself pretty damn squeamish, dead animals and so forth do not faze me at all. I'd love to collect some skeletons/bones but alas, have nothing in my vicinity and am not rooming with skeleton friendly people 
Still I do make a habit of collecting shells, succulent plants, crystals and feathers (though I seem to have misplaced my feather collection somewhere...)
My collection is not especially large, but I aim to expand it in future, my favourite piece and 'coolest' is a big labradorite piece the size of my palm.
With the lack of dead things and bones to clean in my area I'm afraid I have no established method ,__,
Despite considering myself pretty damn squeamish, dead animals and so forth do not faze me at all. I'd love to collect some skeletons/bones but alas, have nothing in my vicinity and am not rooming with skeleton friendly people Still I do make a habit of collecting shells, succulent plants, crystals and feathers (though I seem to have misplaced my feather collection somewhere...)My collection is not especially large, but I aim to expand it in future, my favourite piece and 'coolest' is a big labradorite piece the size of my palm.
With the lack of dead things and bones to clean in my area I'm afraid I have no established method ,__,
Apparently I bleong here... I had no idea this had a name. xD
Ever since I was little I had a tendency to keep the weird things I've found. I'm a horrible pack rat when it comes to this stuff.
My collection is currently rather small since I don't really have the place or means to do what I want. I'm always finding animals that have passed due to natural causes because I live deep in the country/woods but it's almost always something that hasn't entirely decomposed and I just don't feel like dealing with it lol. Recently my boyfriend brought me a hawk skull, though, I just need to clean it up. I also have a femur bone of some unknown creature that I found in my creek. It was naturally dyed black due to the sediment so that's kinda cool. Currently I have a stash of deer bones/skeletons I'm hoping will clean up on their own. I've left them in a gulley and hoping nothing drags them off. :p
Other than that stuff, I also collect gembone, aka fossilized, mineralized dinosaur bone. I also have a few pieces of amber with mostly foliage inclusions. I'd like to get some with critters eventually.
I also have several pieces of petrified wood. Several rocks I thought were pretty (I have a bad problem with this, seriously when I was a kid my mom would wash my pants and rocks would just tumble out of my pockets every where).
BUT. While I am here, I feel I should ask: what's the best way to uh "clean" bones and stuff, mostly skulls?
Ever since I was little I had a tendency to keep the weird things I've found. I'm a horrible pack rat when it comes to this stuff.
My collection is currently rather small since I don't really have the place or means to do what I want. I'm always finding animals that have passed due to natural causes because I live deep in the country/woods but it's almost always something that hasn't entirely decomposed and I just don't feel like dealing with it lol. Recently my boyfriend brought me a hawk skull, though, I just need to clean it up. I also have a femur bone of some unknown creature that I found in my creek. It was naturally dyed black due to the sediment so that's kinda cool. Currently I have a stash of deer bones/skeletons I'm hoping will clean up on their own. I've left them in a gulley and hoping nothing drags them off. :p
Other than that stuff, I also collect gembone, aka fossilized, mineralized dinosaur bone. I also have a few pieces of amber with mostly foliage inclusions. I'd like to get some with critters eventually.
I also have several pieces of petrified wood. Several rocks I thought were pretty (I have a bad problem with this, seriously when I was a kid my mom would wash my pants and rocks would just tumble out of my pockets every where).
BUT. While I am here, I feel I should ask: what's the best way to uh "clean" bones and stuff, mostly skulls?
CoronelCoscacho wrote:
Meh, it's easier than it seems, not as much "chemical mumbo jumbo" and a lot more of pouring formalin bottles over stuff in buckets with water.
Still I asked to my dad bc i got curious, and preserving seahorses on formalin shouldn't be a problem! Apparently the jellyfishes that got ruined where the ones we had put in alcohol. However if you are going to use formalin, make sure to use salted wather, seawater, or saline solution in a proportion of 9 parts of water/solution and 1 part of formalin. As far as i am concerned you can find fisiological solution in any pharmacy, and i guess the formalin can be found in a quemistry? I haven't really had to buy any of it since then so idk really.
Also, i've seen diaphonizing before and it's beautiful!, i've only seen it in frogs and snakes with only translucent muscles, but still the results are amazing. I have no idea how it's made tought
Still I asked to my dad bc i got curious, and preserving seahorses on formalin shouldn't be a problem! Apparently the jellyfishes that got ruined where the ones we had put in alcohol. However if you are going to use formalin, make sure to use salted wather, seawater, or saline solution in a proportion of 9 parts of water/solution and 1 part of formalin. As far as i am concerned you can find fisiological solution in any pharmacy, and i guess the formalin can be found in a quemistry? I haven't really had to buy any of it since then so idk really.
Also, i've seen diaphonizing before and it's beautiful!
, i've only seen it in frogs and snakes with only translucent muscles, but still the results are amazing. I have no idea how it's made toughtA quick Google search told me that diaphonizing requires trypsin, which is a digestive enzyme, but it's hella expensive. You would also need alizarin red and alcian blue for the staining process. I'm sure there's a cheaper and more bootleg way to do it, but I try not to mess with chemicals too much.
Pomkeki wrote:
That looks so incredible! It reminds me of some fish I used to have that were naturally translucent. Now I feel like making a character who does things like that for a living, or maybe a slightly crazy collector. In fact, I bet a necromancer would be into vulture culture.
Gembone wrote:
Other than that stuff, I also collect gembone, aka fossilized, mineralized dinosaur bone. I also have a few pieces of amber with mostly foliage inclusions. I'd like to get some with critters eventually.
Gembone wrote:
BUT. While I am here, I feel I should ask: what's the best way to uh "clean" bones and stuff, mostly skulls?
You can also make a "rot pot", which involves placing the skull in a mesh bag (so that bugs can get in and out) and burying it in the large flower pot. Depending on the size the state of the specimen this method can take months, and smaller bones can be lost this way as the bugs work at it. Water the pot sometimes to make sure any flesh doesn't mummify. You can try keeping a plant in there, too, but usually the rotting process affects the soil's nitrate levels to a point where most plants don't like it.
Once there's no more meat on your skull, you have to degrease it; otherwise the fat in the bones will set over time and go rancid, which discolours the skull and also smells bad. To avoid this, put the skull in another container/jar of water with a lot of dish soap. It's best to keep the water warm to draw out the fats. Some people use a fish tank heater for this, but since this process doesn't smell like maceration does, I use glass jars and keep them inside over heat vents in my house. Some animals don't have very greasy bones, or their bones have been outside for so long that there's no fat left in them, so oftentimes you can skip this step.
The very last step is sterilizing and whitening. Buy some peroxide from the drugstore. A higher percentage will whiten the bones faster, but it can also burn your skin, so just be careful. Typically you want to pour enough over the bones to cover them (again, it depends on the size of the skull).
But yeah, that's basically bone cleaning 101. Never boil bones or use bleach! It completely ruins them.
I am a bit of a vulture, but living where I do makes it tough! (Very close to a major city) My first experience with the hobby was when I was around 10, and my friend and I found a femur in the woods. We didn't know what it was (later on I identified it as whitetail deer) and were a little spooked at first, then deeply fascinated. We rigged up a harness to carry it home (we were afraid it would make us sick), then cleaned and bleached it. I still have it and love it very much!
A few years ago I found an almost complete whitetail doe skeleton behind my fiancee's house. That was a truly exciting find, but I also had no freaking idea what I was doing ... and I bleached the skull ;_; One of my biggest regrets, as now the thinner bones in the nasal cavity are disintigrating. Alas! For a while I was also buying beef shinbones at the grocery, then cooking them gently to get the meat off and cleaning them up with dish soap. I know boiling = bad, but they seem to have held up over the years. The plan was to carve them.
I ALSO had a fun experience mixing bleach and peroxide, which produces oxygen gas and bubbles like crazy. I had no idea that this would happen, and I thought for a second I had produced chlorine gas. Whoops.
People have also learned I enjoy vulturing. I've been gifted with a beautifully cleaned groundhog skull, and three deer skulls that are buried behind my parents house to be dug up when defleshed. (I ... actually forgot about them until now. Whoops. They might be ready to go!)
I have purchased a lot of bones for projects, too. I use antler tips and badger claws for buttons on my belt pouches, and really want to get back into bone carving.
A few years ago I found an almost complete whitetail doe skeleton behind my fiancee's house. That was a truly exciting find, but I also had no freaking idea what I was doing ... and I bleached the skull ;_; One of my biggest regrets, as now the thinner bones in the nasal cavity are disintigrating. Alas! For a while I was also buying beef shinbones at the grocery, then cooking them gently to get the meat off and cleaning them up with dish soap. I know boiling = bad, but they seem to have held up over the years. The plan was to carve them.
I ALSO had a fun experience mixing bleach and peroxide, which produces oxygen gas and bubbles like crazy. I had no idea that this would happen, and I thought for a second I had produced chlorine gas. Whoops.
People have also learned I enjoy vulturing. I've been gifted with a beautifully cleaned groundhog skull, and three deer skulls that are buried behind my parents house to be dug up when defleshed. (I ... actually forgot about them until now. Whoops. They might be ready to go!)
I have purchased a lot of bones for projects, too. I use antler tips and badger claws for buttons on my belt pouches, and really want to get back into bone carving.
Heimdall wrote:
I am a bit of a vulture, but living where I do makes it tough! (Very close to a major city) My first experience with the hobby was when I was around 10, and my friend and I found a femur in the woods. We didn't know what it was (later on I identified it as whitetail deer) and were a little spooked at first, then deeply fascinated. We rigged up a harness to carry it home (we were afraid it would make us sick), then cleaned and bleached it. I still have it and love it very much!
A few years ago I found an almost complete whitetail doe skeleton behind my fiancee's house. That was a truly exciting find, but I also had no freaking idea what I was doing ... and I bleached the skull ;_; One of my biggest regrets, as now the thinner bones in the nasal cavity are disintigrating. Alas! For a while I was also buying beef shinbones at the grocery, then cooking them gently to get the meat off and cleaning them up with dish soap. I know boiling = bad, but they seem to have held up over the years. The plan was to carve them.
I ALSO had a fun experience mixing bleach and peroxide, which produces oxygen gas and bubbles like crazy. I had no idea that this would happen, and I thought for a second I had produced chlorine gas. Whoops.
People have also learned I enjoy vulturing. I've been gifted with a beautifully cleaned groundhog skull, and three deer skulls that are buried behind my parents house to be dug up when defleshed. (I ... actually forgot about them until now. Whoops. They might be ready to go!)
I have purchased a lot of bones for projects, too. I use antler tips and badger claws for buttons on my belt pouches, and really want to get back into bone carving.
A few years ago I found an almost complete whitetail doe skeleton behind my fiancee's house. That was a truly exciting find, but I also had no freaking idea what I was doing ... and I bleached the skull ;_; One of my biggest regrets, as now the thinner bones in the nasal cavity are disintigrating. Alas! For a while I was also buying beef shinbones at the grocery, then cooking them gently to get the meat off and cleaning them up with dish soap. I know boiling = bad, but they seem to have held up over the years. The plan was to carve them.
I ALSO had a fun experience mixing bleach and peroxide, which produces oxygen gas and bubbles like crazy. I had no idea that this would happen, and I thought for a second I had produced chlorine gas. Whoops.
People have also learned I enjoy vulturing. I've been gifted with a beautifully cleaned groundhog skull, and three deer skulls that are buried behind my parents house to be dug up when defleshed. (I ... actually forgot about them until now. Whoops. They might be ready to go!)
I have purchased a lot of bones for projects, too. I use antler tips and badger claws for buttons on my belt pouches, and really want to get back into bone carving.
Oh jeez, you have more guts than I do, lmao. Did you mix bleach and peroxide for cleaning purposes or just to see what would happen?
Bone carving always seemed really cool. I was too worried I'd mess up a perfectly good bone, though.
Yersinia wrote:
I suppose that makes sense, given how much water jellies are made of. Thanks for the info, though! It would be cool to try sometime, maybe with a pair of goat's eyes or something.
A quick Google search told me that diaphonizing requires trypsin, which is a digestive enzyme, but it's hella expensive. You would also need alizarin red and alcian blue for the staining process. I'm sure there's a cheaper and more bootleg way to do it, but I try not to mess with chemicals too much.
A quick Google search told me that diaphonizing requires trypsin, which is a digestive enzyme, but it's hella expensive. You would also need alizarin red and alcian blue for the staining process. I'm sure there's a cheaper and more bootleg way to do it, but I try not to mess with chemicals too much.
Do it! Looking back I've seen it done with dog fetuses and reptiles as well (the fetus was kind of sad, but i haven't seen it in ages), so it may work in whole animals as well. I wouldn't recomend it on a whole goat thought, unless you have a jar that big :V
Yeah, that's chemicals for you ;v;...I look forward to find a bootleg way to do it tought, there's always a bootleg way!
So yeah, if i find an animal carcass and manage to not blow up in pieces in the process, i'll make sure to share my cheapsake wisdom in here.
Heimdall wrote:
I have purchased a lot of bones for projects, too. I use antler tips and badger claws for buttons on my belt pouches, and really want to get back into bone carving.
Bone carving sounds really cool! I would like to try and do it some time, but I don't presicely have access to a lot of materials ;v;...Still, bone crafts are something i'd love to do if i ever have the chance. You mentioned before you had to boil the bones, is there some specific way to boil them or prepare them for carving? And also, does one need some kind of special tools, or a simple knife could do the trick? -pumped up-
Yersinia wrote:
Gembone is super cool! Out of interest, where do you buy it from? I know a lot of people are in the business of growing crystals on bones and insects. I tried it myself using borax, but it wasn't potent enough to achieve the same results.
Yersinia wrote:
There's a lot of really helpful guides written by other vultures that you can find online, but let's see...step one is to remove as much meat as possible, including the eyes and brain, to speed up the process. The fastest cleaning method I've found is maceration. Submerge the skull in a loosely-covered container of water (maybe with a bit of blood or beer to kickstart decomposition) and leave it outside somewhere warm and away from your house. Warning: this method smells so bad oh my god.
You can also make a "rot pot", which involves placing the skull in a mesh bag (so that bugs can get in and out) and burying it in the large flower pot. Depending on the size the state of the specimen this method can take months, and smaller bones can be lost this way as the bugs work at it. Water the pot sometimes to make sure any flesh doesn't mummify. You can try keeping a plant in there, too, but usually the rotting process affects the soil's nitrate levels to a point where most plants don't like it.
Once there's no more meat on your skull, you have to degrease it; otherwise the fat in the bones will set over time and go rancid, which discolours the skull and also smells bad. To avoid this, put the skull in another container/jar of water with a lot of dish soap. It's best to keep the water warm to draw out the fats. Some people use a fish tank heater for this, but since this process doesn't smell like maceration does, I use glass jars and keep them inside over heat vents in my house. Some animals don't have very greasy bones, or their bones have been outside for so long that there's no fat left in them, so oftentimes you can skip this step.
The very last step is sterilizing and whitening. Buy some peroxide from the drugstore. A higher percentage will whiten the bones faster, but it can also burn your skin, so just be careful. Typically you want to pour enough over the bones to cover them (again, it depends on the size of the skull).
But yeah, that's basically bone cleaning 101. Never boil bones or use bleach! It completely ruins them.
You can also make a "rot pot", which involves placing the skull in a mesh bag (so that bugs can get in and out) and burying it in the large flower pot. Depending on the size the state of the specimen this method can take months, and smaller bones can be lost this way as the bugs work at it. Water the pot sometimes to make sure any flesh doesn't mummify. You can try keeping a plant in there, too, but usually the rotting process affects the soil's nitrate levels to a point where most plants don't like it.
Once there's no more meat on your skull, you have to degrease it; otherwise the fat in the bones will set over time and go rancid, which discolours the skull and also smells bad. To avoid this, put the skull in another container/jar of water with a lot of dish soap. It's best to keep the water warm to draw out the fats. Some people use a fish tank heater for this, but since this process doesn't smell like maceration does, I use glass jars and keep them inside over heat vents in my house. Some animals don't have very greasy bones, or their bones have been outside for so long that there's no fat left in them, so oftentimes you can skip this step.
The very last step is sterilizing and whitening. Buy some peroxide from the drugstore. A higher percentage will whiten the bones faster, but it can also burn your skin, so just be careful. Typically you want to pour enough over the bones to cover them (again, it depends on the size of the skull).
But yeah, that's basically bone cleaning 101. Never boil bones or use bleach! It completely ruins them.
Thank you so much! That's really helpful. I've perused tons of guides online but I tend to get a "second opinion".
I get all of my specimens from Ebay. Every now and then there will be a couple pieces I cannot pass up. Generally the more brighter colored pieces with clearly developed cells are considered better quality, so I try to keep an eye out for good deals on those. I also buy them in cabochons in case I want to turn them into a necklace, which I've done for a couple so far, but I do also have a big chunk that just sits on my desk.
Also, I have never heard of people growing crystals off of insects and bones... ;O; I will have to look that up now.
Yersinia wrote:
Oh jeez, you have more guts than I do, lmao. Did you mix bleach and peroxide for cleaning purposes or just to see what would happen?
Little bit of both
Yersinia wrote:
Bone carving always seemed really cool. I was too worried I'd mess up a perfectly good bone, though.
I'd be too scared to try carving one of my special pieces until I get more practice in! But I have ten million antler tips and other little bits and bobs (phalanges, etc.) that I don't mind having a go at. And horns! I really want to carve steer horns for drinking and blowing. I started one last year and it was coming out great, but I never got around to finishing it.
bone carving is nice and since i have an odd fascination with zentangles and patterns i find it fun though i rarely do it...not sure why the results are always pretty i guess i just get bored too quickly for it...
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