OsteoFancy

People don't understand the time and work (and stomach) that goes into making art with bones... let's break it down!

Got this skull in November.

Spent 3 hours the next day skinning, defleshing, removing eyes and brain meticulously as to not damage any bone, including the fragile sinuses.

Immediately gave it to my dermestid beetle colony. Checked on the colony every other day, monitoring humidity, decomposition, cleaning the colony to keep it healthy.

2 weeks ago noticed he was *almost* there but the beetles needed something fresh. Gave them some rabbit bones to work on, too.

Today, spent about 30 minutes removing beetles so that taking him out wouldn't decimate my colony.

And then put him in a 5-6% peroxide bath (12% mixed with hot water) where he will stay, being stinky for the next week. Then that will get dumped, he will get a good scrub with an electric toothbrush, and back into a new peroxide soak mixed with Dawn for a week. That will get changed out weekly until the soak stays clear all week.

Then he will get placed in a cool, dry area to dry out for about 2 weeks.

All this before he's even usable for a piece of art.

Below: freshly placed in peroxide bath (aka forbidden sprite) - stinking up my office 🤪