who am i?

What makes a girl thrust herself into a world of death and reanimation?  I have always been a fairly dark person (on the inside)...

Clearly a little sassy on the outside.

My parents (mostly my mother) constantly wondered why I would bring home drawings of coffins and want to snuggle and throw funerals for my goldfish and other pets (complete with little painted boxes, with handles, handmade gravestones, and funeral rights, grave side.  Nothing got flushed in our house.  These little rituals, with full processions always lead me to think about death in not only an end to life, but the beginning of a fantastic new journey.  As I got older and gained access to books on the funeral industry, and Victorian mourning (OH THE FASHION!), I became even more obsessed.  So I decided on my 30th birthday I would try to learn something new, that new thing, taxidermy.

Much to my mother's chagrin, the first taste of dismantling that fox and mounting it on a foam mount has been a fire that's burned very brightly in my heart ever since.  Yes, these creatures are dead, but it's a privilege for me to have the experience of recreating life with them, or in different circumstances, creating a loving monument to the treasured beasties they were in live.

By day, I work with the living as an aesthetician, beautifying and working on sometimes complex skin conditions.  During my free time I hang out with my dogs, watch obscure documentaries on puppetry, collect bones and bugs, go to drag shows, read fashion mags, practice yoga and try to have as much of a creative outlet as I possibly can.  I also have a shameful weakness for the Jersey Shore.

The first few posts will detail my quest to make a lasting memento of my dear friend D's long lost ferret, who passed away due to adrenal disease.  We originally had thought of getting the bones nice and clean, and then I would painstakingly put them back together as a mount for her.  But I've only worked with Maceration before...

Single point buck skull with lower mandible and vertebrae.

And a Ferrets bones are so small I was afraid that I would lose some in the process.

So it came to me last night during a dream, why not try mummification.  Thus the process has begun.  I hope to have her beloved Pip back to her by spring.  It's been too long already.