Once upon a time I was making jewelry and I had a vision; slices of antler carved, polished and set with real gems stones like ruby, sapphire, garnet, amethyst, and diamonds. So I bought a couple of antler pieces locally and bought some gems on Ebay for cheap and began. I loved them and it was great fun so I found folks on Craig's list who had some more antler for sale and I bought it, sliced it and made more pendants. I invested in sterling chains and wire and created some lovely pieces that I sold to coworkers and at bazaars.
I even bought a box with whole moose and caribou antlers as well as a couple of pieces of bone from steppe bison that lived here thousands of years ago. I bought some sheep horn at a gun show and some mammoth ivory at the fair. In all I made an sold about 30 pieces. Then we moved and I lost my work space for making jewelry in this way, but the antlers and horns moved with us.
The next chapter started when I saw an add on Craig's list for some lynx skulls. I was working at a school and asked if the science teachers were interested. "Yep" they said so I bought several. I saved 3 for me.
I gave one of them to my nephew, cause he likes cool stuff too, and the other two sat on my shelf for a couple of years. Then one night I had a dream.
I saw myself painting one of those skulls.
And I did. It took several days as I needed to let each color dry. I was using some stray paints I had left over and some water color brushes I borrowed from the art teacher.
As I was painting I just paid attention to the process and tried to match my vision. As I painted though I knew this was not a skull I would keep. It felt like it belonged to someone else. By the time I finished it was quite amazing; not only did it have many bright colors but I had done a lot of over work with black ink lines and I had set 3 rhinestones into the bone.
About this time I knew just who this skull belonged to.
We had a friend with a brain tumor, who had a biology background like me and like me loved animals and even found the bones and skulls cool.
We gave her the skull while she was in the hospital recovering from yet another procedure.
It became one of her favorite things and still holds a place of honor in the house after her death.
I soon painted the other skull and started seeking more to paint. It was the process that spoke to me. and often left me amazed that the end products could be so beautiful because I just painted things as they wanted to be painted. I seldom have that kind of clear vision of the end product anymore, instead I let myself be lead from one color to the next and one pattern or texture.
I acquired way more skulls since then of all types.
beavers, lynx, wolf, coyote, fox, otter, elk, cow, porcupine...
And so my bone bin has grown. I have no idea where my vision will lead me next.
I do have several skulls in process and several skulls on the market.
One of my favorites is the pronghorn skull my brother gave me after his hunt last year.
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