#tawdt

[atatfortatzelwurm]

In a turn of events where I accidentally put images of partly processed bird heads in the wrong server, I sent unsolicited duck pics.

[atatfortatzelwurm]

@ OLDER VULTURES!!

I just got 3 whitetail deer legs, both front and one back, and I need to know how to preserve them!!

One of the front legs I want to mummify. I know the basics, but will just layering it in borax be enough? How long does it take? Will the tendons still move?

As for the other two legs, I only want the bones and the hooves. How should I go about getting them? Maceration, nature-cleaning(as in burying) or something else?

[atatfortatzelwurm]

i don’t know how all the more experienced Vultures do it... y’all are out there with a team of 15 people finding 6 raccoons 5 opossums a squirrel a pigeon skull the front half of a deer and all of Atlantis and i can’t even find a tree in the fucking woods

[atatfortatzelwurm]

it’s certainly not going well but i’m having fun and that’s what matters

[atatfortatzelwurm]

Because I realized I didn’t have any pictures of my whole collection, here.

Now I know most people would stop here but I want to talk about my deads more so too bad

First up are the three amigos; whit.etai.l dee.r antlers. The shed ones were found in the woods, the ones with the skulls still attached were sort of hand-me-downs from my granparents to my dad to me. By that I mean I found them in the garage and my dad said I could keep them.

A pair of black bea.r front paws that were given to me by my gramps. The be.ar’s name is Oscar and the rest of him is at Gramps’ house. The gray f.ox tails were both from Texas, and the top on Gramps hunted. The other one was bought for me from my dad.

The two that are currently “in process”, Peaches the ca.t skull-in the jar-and Tucker the chipm.unk in the bright orange box. 

Peaches is my stinky little baby, and she was found in the woods behind the school my brother Max used to go to about 8 or 9 years ago and then sat on Max’s dresser looking cool for about 3 years. After I got into Vulture Culture I decided to clean the last bits of mummified flesh stuck to her and HOO BOY it has been a Journey. She was named Peaches because she’s macerating in a peach jar.

Tucker isn’t as exciting: our fat cat caught him either late September or early October and he’s been in the duck-taped shut box ever since. The original plan was to have his skin AND his skull but at this point I’m probably only going to get his skull. He got the name Tucker because of... Reasons.

Onto my Biggest Boy, John Snowbutt. He’s a white colored fallo.w d.eer, and his skin is the thing everything else has been sitting on. He was brought down by my Gramps on Dec. 27 2015 and his skull and skin were given to me as a gift. We also got venison from him, I think stew meat, steaks, and a few other things I don’t remember. His name is John Snowbutt because he’s all white and he kept turning his butt to Gramps on the hunt and now I get to make ‘Deer John’ jokes. I usually just call him Snowbutt.

Glamour shot of Snowbutt because this one looked really cool

[atatfortatzelwurm]

My siblings: mom can i borrow money to buy music

Me: mom can i borrow money to buy a taxidermy-grade raccoon skin

[atatfortatzelwurm]

ALRIGHT YALL LEMME TALK ABOUT MY PAL AT STORM SONG STUDIOS AND HOW KICKASS THEIR SHIT IS

So as a few of you might already know, I am good friends with Jessica of @stormsongstudio​, and along with her partner Adam they make things like the hand-crocheted Gurumi Guardians, sturdily crafted earrings and bracelets out of scrap material, and of course intricate little pieces of jewelry-I have a few things from them, and I LOVE IT.

This is a close-up of my first jewelry from them. The earrings on the sides are just those metal feathers with wire wrapped around them with a shiny little green bead on them, and the vial necklace has those two mini-bells on the side ON THEIR OWN LITTLE LOOP SO THEY MAKE EVEN MORE NOISE THANK YOU FOR YOUR TINY ACCOMODATIONS JESSICA I LOVE JEWELRY THAT JINGLES and on the inside is another metal feather wrapped with wire with a small metal coil and two rocks. It makes a lot of noise but again, I like that sort of thing.

Anyway, the next piece isn’t something you’ll find in her shop-It was something of a custom order and I provided 4 of the 5 main eye-catchers on what I consider my favorite piece below.

I really can’t do this one justice. It has an I-don’t-remember-what-kind of metal wire, and amethyst beads leading down past black bear canines to a beautiful chevron amethyst that we picked out on our run for the beads.

Here’s a close up of the teeth. Yes they’re really real, yes I got them from a trusted, ethical source. 

Aaaand a close up of the amethyst, along with it’s wire wrapping. The left side looks a little dinged up because I kept fiddling with it. I love the little loop at the top, it’s so cute.

Bonus glamour shot because I LOVE this necklace. I mean really, who wouldn’t?

Lastly, there’s this one. By far my biggest necklace and possibly my heaviest, this one only counts by technicality. This was a gift from my friend Scott to me, but he got the stone from Jessica. I say it counts.

Of course, another close up...

AND ONTO THE SELFIES!!!! because i have no pictures of myself and i looked nice

This one’s a lot shorter than the others my request, I have a lot of experience with getting hit in various areas of the face with heavy amulets and such. No earrings to go with it yet, but I am waiting on some bear claws to I ordered to come in.

Just for the sake of having it here. The stone is pretty heavy but so is the chain, so it’s never flung itself up into my face.

I’m wearing the matching vial necklace and earrings and looking at them now I realize I totally should have had something in my pictures for scale. Oh well. The lace on these are made of leather and extremely durable, made so because I jump around a lot and having it fall off a delicate chain would be a pain in the ass to deal with. It’s a bit hard to see, but it also has sliding knots so you can adjust the length. I usually wear it longer, but it still had to be in frame. The earrings, true to the shape they take, are very light and I usually forget I’m even wearing them. 

The reason these are weirdly out of order is because I needed a transition into the point of this post-to direct you into getting all of the awesome tidbits and jewelry Storm Song Studios has to offer. Seriously, I have barely scratched the surface of the things they offer, and I didn’t even get to TOUCH the Gurumi Guardians. They have bracelets with different crystals, earrings, VIAL NECKLACES THAT I LOVE SO MUCH, and you can even get commissions from them if you want something specific.

Here’s their tumblr

and here’s their Etsy!

[atatfortatzelwurm]

sometimes older vultures give you golden eggs of advice, or facts or rules you’ll not soon forget in your hopefully many, grand, and exciting collecting adventures...

and other times they say ‘i can’t really explain it, you just have to get a feel for it’ when u ask how to id a raccoon skull bc you dont have any