wishbone | he/it

oddities, curiosities and mysteries galore! my happy home of horrors and history, a menagerie of maniacal masterpieces and a menacing myriad of the macabre. i hope youll enjoy my little shop of handmade, ethical, eco-friendly and creepy crafts, taxidermy and more! | about me: 24yrs old, transmasc, queer, artist, writer, pagan witch, alt/emo cryptid-grunge + bug/rat/bonecore, rat/cat/chicken dad, autistic, hard of hearing, chronic pain, invisible disabilities, bugs and bones are my main SpIns | what to expect: taxidermy, diys, crafts, dead things, poetry and other writing, artwork/commissions, and more!!

[nateaz]

#DeadOnTheRoad; that is, #LundHighway going through #Enoch, #Utah. I don’t think these victims were normal roadkill? There were several of these #Endangered #UtahPrairieDogs that were hit and freshly dead all over this portion of the highway and I can’t help but suspect that it was an intentional act of hatred against some of the Creator’s creations? Unfortunately, ranchers and country folks in #SouthernUtah carry an animosity against these living things because they perceive them as a threat to their way of life; it’s a complicated political matter, but I don’t think the innocence of these endangered animals should be violated. Humans should take responsibility and have dignity towards what stewardship they need to carry in relation to the natural world. I’m sure, decent country folk wouldn’t condone this sort of senseless killing though? Maybe I’m wrong!? I had to share to bring about awareness after stumbling upon this in the archives from 2019. (at Enoch, Utah) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPHeFw7FrNK/?utm_medium=tumblr

[neverlookatexplosions]

I hope we overcompensate when repairing the damage done by climate change. I want to see every area that has potential to support nature absolutely covered in vegetation. I want people to grow as many native plants on their land as they can reasonably fit. I want everyone to have a shit-ton of houseplants. I want to see every endangered species bounce back. I want to see animals reintroduced to the environments they belong in. I want to see multi-billion dollar carbon sequestration projects in every developed nation. I want to see solar panels on every roof. I want efficiency to be a priority in all areas of technology. I want to see cities with roads that let rain water to seep into the ground, allowing the water table to be replenished. I want to see nature overpasses on every highway, and underpasses on every other road. no more roadkill! I want to see every suburban hellscape unbuilt and densified. I want to see nature heal. I need to see it. I won't rest easy until I do.

[wishbonecuriosities]

The saddest thing is when beautiful endangered birds are killed by cars.. I found this lovely boy on the road and took him off it, laid him to rest on the side so he wasn't being constantly run over (he was in the middle of the road where he could have been constantly hit). I didn't take him as he looked like a falcon and it's better to be safe. Researched what he was after and found out he's illegal to keep any part of, so good on me for leaving him over taking. He's an American Kestrel, an endangered falcon subspecies protected under federal law. It's pretty sad but it's life. Hopefully he's at peace and wasn't in pain when he got hit. Enjoy his beauty even in death. I snapped photos before I laid him to rest in the brush beside the road.

PLEASE RESEARCH BEFORE YOU TAKE ROADKILL! RESEARCH WHAT ANIMALS ARE OK TO TAKE AND NOT!!! DONT GO TO JAIL OVER A BIRD!

(Please note I placed him on a white styrofoam box for a moment to take some nice photos before I laid him to rest in the brush. Ain't nothing illegal about taking a photo of a beautiful bird. Also FUCK whoever killed this precious being. FUCK cars and roads.)

[jaketeachesdeath]

I teased this 10 point Red the other day so here it is!

An absolute giant! Id never thought they were quite that big and I am tiny in comparison.

In chatting with the seller of the Pere David's antler yesterday we actually discovered that the use of tines to age Deer is largely unreliable and a myth!

Theres some restoration work to do on this guy so we'll update again shortly.

25/01/23

[wishbonecuriosities]

The jealousy I'm experiencing rn. What a great find!! Congrats!!!

[wishbonecuriosities]

For sale:

Courage vertebrae talisman (created and charged with the intention of courage)

Strength hipbone talisman (created and charged with the intention of strength)

Both are from a squirrel (natural death), handmade and cleaned by me. Both charged with the intentions they represent!

Price- 10$ for one OR 15$ for both, Plus 5$ shipping

USA only

PayPal only

[wishbonecuriosities]

Bee Taxidermy Habitat

Date: April 30, 2022

I found this poor girl during a walk just dead on the sidewalk and decided to make her into a little habitat type piece to honor her. Save the bees, folks! They're endanger and super important to the survival of the plants!! Idk how she died but her body will forever be apart of this simple display I've made. I know it's not perfect and you can see my mistakes if you look closely but I'm proud of it and intend on getting better for future projects!

[natural-selections]

Here's something you don't see every day - a donkey skeleton giving birth!

Tragically, the donkey and it's offspring passed while giving birth. Toby Boch, our articulator, has reassembled the pair of skeletons how they were found.

We decided to immortalize this snapshot of life (and death) as a permanent exhibit for our museum.

[scarysigns]

[kaijutegu]

I just saw a post on Facebook of a local taxidermist restoring a mount from the Field Museum. In the description of this mount, she said “Although I do not know its origin, based on how it was mounted originally id say its safe to say this animal died of natural causes.” And that got me thinking, because it’s a leopard. It absolutely did not die of natural causes. The Field Museum, like literally every other big natural history museum, commissioned all kinds of hunts in the 1900s-1930s where animals from across the globe were hunted en-masse. That’s how we got scientific specimens. It’s barbaric by today’s standards, but it was a different era back then and we didn’t have the same standards. This isn’t an excuse, but it is an explanation.

And there’s no way in hell she doesn’t know this, because she used to be a scientific illustrator at the museum. The Field makes it very clear where these animals came from. They have public signage about it, and it’s even more clear down in collections.

It kinda got me thinking again about my feelings re: ethics in the natural history and vulture culture community. We seem to really like it when we can justify the death of an animal as “ethical.” “It was roadkill.” “It died of natural causes.” “Ethically collected.” “Ethically sourced.” Ethics has become SUCH a buzzword, and it’s… I dunno. It kinda feels like there’s a part of the community that doesn’t want taxidermy to be as conflicting as it is, like they want it to be a feel-good hobby that doesn’t center around the fact that something did have to die to make the art you’re collecting.

To me, that’s kind of the beauty of it, looking at death and repurposing what’s left over.

What does ethical taxidermy mean? Does it mean the animal didn’t experience pain? If that’s the case, then you can’t call roadkill ethical. Does it mean the animal’s death was inevitable, and that it would have died anyways and you’re just scavenging the parts? Does it mean that the animal suffered minimally throughout its life? Does it mean simply that taxidermy wasn’t the end goal of the animal’s death and that its death, whether that was at human hands or natural causes, had a different purpose in mind?

There’s a sister train of thought to this as well. Natural history museums- I’m talking the old ones established in the 1800s-1900s- were colonialist endeavours. In many ways they existed to show off the natural resources of a nation’s colonies and territories. There was a lot of resource extraction for these museums- white scientists would go places, shoot as much wildlife as they could, harvest as many native plants as they could, and then come home to exhibit the stuff. It wasn’t so outwardly egregious as museums that were essentially designed as colonial treasure houses (like the British Museum), but it presented a very… strange way of looking at environments, because a lot of these natural history museums ignored the people who were there. And that meant creating this idealized (primarily African) landscape that was just big game as far as the eye could see, a playground for rich white hunters. When people were involved, they were… basically treated like a different sort of animal, something to be gawked at rather than understood. It was wildly dehumanizing, and it’s a legacy that natural history museums are still grappling with today.

To say that a leopard- one of the African “Big 5” game animals- in a vintage museum collection died a natural death is disingenuous at best and intentionally misleading at worst. I really wonder what she was thinking when she made multiple posts (that nobody has commented on) about how she assumes this animal died naturally.

[wishbonecuriosities]

this got me to think. thank you. I guess when I say my taxidermy is ethical, I guess to me it means that I personally didn't kill the animal and it did not die solely to become art. whether it died naturally, as roadkill or by the hands of a hunter, it served a purpose and it wasn't initially killed to be taxidermy. the hunter giving me deer bones used the meat to feed his family. the roadkill possum fed worms and other animals as it decomposed before being found and turned into something beautiful and memorable. the cat that died of old age was well loved and cared for and her owner couldn't bare to bury and forget her but instead wanted her skull and bones to honor her. I cant speak for every taxidermist but my ethics is simply that I personally don't kill animals nor do I personally accept animals killed for the sole purpose of taxidermy.