(university-provided shitty planner, pleather from a skirt i picked up from the street, zippers from an old boot, googly eyes, gifted pen loop tab, elastic from an old journal, and a shitload of aleene's tacky glue)
whitetail deer (Odeocoileus virginianus) doe skull, 2025
i can ID it as a doe because it doesn't have any noticable antler nubs, which are present even on juvenile bucks.
found by my parents on the side of the road in early september (with some jerky-dried sinew still attached, which was neat), and given to me as a birthday present. degreased with dawn dish soap, sanitized and whitened with hydrogen peroxide. might give it another round of whitening at some point (or leave it out in the sun this summer)
(with a gifted portrait of my cat, galileo, who slew this little beastie)
my cat left this little shrew out for me in august 2025, having been left unsupervised for a day.
i let it decompose outside by my usual method (patch of bare ground, plastic container with some holes on top, weighed down) and collected the bones before the first snow of the year.
i degreased & did an initial cleaning with dawn dish soap, then sanitized & minimally whitened with a hydrogen peroxide soak. i could have let them soak longer to get them whiter, but i was on a time crunch.
i considered trying to articulate, since i knew i had all the bones, but i cannot overstate how teeny-weeny these bones are. also, i don't have any of the proper glue, because i've never articulated before.
i ended up using this display case i had instead, sewing the bones down into the foam. i don't know if i quite got the ribs in the right order - i haven't done any study of anatomy since high school, and the internet isn't bursting with resources on short-tailed shrews.
i think the layout looks cool, though misleading - the spacing of the ribs makes it appear weasel-like. i maybe should have laid the weasel on its back, stitching the ribs closer together and upright, but i'm sure as hell not redoing it.
female long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata)* pelt, december 2025
legally trapped & owned after being caught red-pawed chewing on our chickens
*in the winter coat, coloration is near-identical to the short-tailed weasel (ermine), but the tail (over 11 cm long) allows for ID. otherwise small enough to be an ermine though, which indicates she's a girl.
long-tailed weasels range coast-to-coast across the americas, as far north as southern canada (me!) and as far south as peru. in 2015 they were designated a species of least concern.
we were hoping she would give up on the chickens, but she killed four, so we trapped her (legal for protection of property) using a snap trap (which, while they sound nasty, are broadly considered the most humane method). since she's a fur-bearing mammal (and i don't have a trapping license) i registered my possession of the carcass (& subsequently the pelt) with the ministry of natural resources. i can transfer possession as a gift, but i cannot legally sell it.
i skinned her, and air-dried the skin into rawhide on a stretchboard my father made for me. i didn't do a tanning process, so the skin is stiff, similar in texture to parchment.
this was my first time skinning an animal/preserving a pelt, and i was under a time crunch, so i was going off of details from a university lecture from a local indigenous trapper, a youtube video, and a few websites. that considered, i think mostly did a passable technical job (with the exception of the tail, which i had to sew back together).
it was intense, working so closely with the body of a creature that i had recently seen alive. i don't consider myself spiritual, but i prayed a little. i thanked her a lot through the process. for giving her life so our chickens could live. i tried to honor her by working as carefully as i knew how, by treating her body gently, making use of what i could. i've set the rest of her up behind a statue of the virgin mary in the yard, letting her return to the soil in a sacred spot. in the spring, i'll collect her bones.
my favorite christmas present - my grandmother's 1975 Sears-Kenmore 158.1040 sewing machine!
it's in fantastic condition. the only maintenance needed was a belt adjustment, and a little oil.
it was designed as a lightweight portable machine, and packs SO many features into its compact all-metal frame. it even has a carrying case!
my current machine is a bit of an enigma to me, so i never use it. i'm excited to finally NOT be hand sewing everything i ever sew! the time i'll save...
first project - a wonky little bag to hold the pedal!
made with material my grandma gave me! i did NOT use a pattern. or have a plan of any kind. so honestly miraculous it turned out as functional as it did
my favorite christmas present - my grandmother's 1975 Sears-Kenmore 158.1040 sewing machine!
it's in fantastic condition. the only maintenance needed was a belt adjustment, and a little oil.
it was designed as a lightweight portable machine, and packs SO many features into its compact all-metal frame. it even has a carrying case!
my current machine is a bit of an enigma to me, so i never use it. i'm excited to finally NOT be hand sewing everything i ever sew! the time i'll save...
i have a collection of about 500 vintage stamps i got for free from an estate sale, all from around the 50s. i checked a few and they're selling for like, 20 cents on ebay, so i feel fine making earring out of them.
it's interesting making wearables out of political items. stamps reflect the ideology and identity of the states that produce them, and being from the 50s, a lot of these stamps carry narratives or depict unsavoury political figures that most people wouldn't want to be endorsing.
obviously wearing a postage stamp earring doesn't equate to endorsement of the state that produced it, but it's something i want to be mindful of.
earring process
they're all sandwiches (held together with tacky glue) but i did a bunch of variations on the ingredients!
iteration 1
sandwich: stamp - watercolour paper - postage stamp
hook attachment: hole through all three layers
issue: obstructs designs on the top centre of the stamp, uses two stamps and one is not very visible
iteration 2
sandwich: stamp - canvas - watercolour paper
hook attachment: through canvas/watercolour paper (under stamp)
issue: very stiff hook, bump under stamp
iteration 3
sandwich: stamp - canvas - watercolour paper
hook attachment: through canvas/watercolour paper (tab extended above stamp)
issue: ugly.
iteration 4
sandwich: stamp - canvas - cardboard - watercolour paper
hook attachment: on wire o-ring embedded in cardboard
issue: thick sandwich, concerns about ring stability
iteration 5
sandwich: stamp - canvas x2 - watercolour paper
hook attachment: on pop tab, canvas is one piece folded in half strung through pop tab hole
issue: thick sandwich, bumpy back
iteration 6
exactly the same as above but i hammered the pop tab and filled the gap around it with paper
issue: sandwich still kind of thick...
iteration 7
sandwich: same as above
hook attachment: canvas looped into o-ring, and watercolour paper cut out around o-ring bump instead of pasted over
issue: none. rocks. i did it. might put the loops lower for later ones but otherwise sick as hell.
iteration 8
exactly the same as above but i broke a pop tab in half to just use the top loop. did a bad job painting the back but otherwise sick
snowghoul
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
dailybridgerton