Trade with Ladylockslife Part 1

I use instagram a lot. I find it's a better forum for personal work (despite the copyright and 3rd party issues that arose earlier this year) But also I've found some absolutely amazing creative people to follow. Some really talented bastards. It's really inspirational. I follow quite a few curio/wuderkammer, Taxidermy and entomology instagram accounts. Usually a lot of curio jewellery designers who not only make wonderful jewels but really make the effort to tell their followers about the methods they used to make their jewellery and just general information about their topic of interest. I find that it's a completely different picture sharing site, things tend not to get lost like on tumblr. I haven't started using pinterest yet, but I'm sure I'll be all over that like a rash soon enough. Anyway, I follow a lady called Annie Loucks, of Ladylocks creations and heres her instagram account. She makes some really gorgeous jewellery so I proposed a trade. Here is part one. A little a5 graphite/micron and gold leaf illustration. I'm thinking about doing a bit of a fancy wax seal on it, but might just leave that for the envelope. Also a little preview of my ever expanding personal collection of pretties.

Lozzy Bones logo progress

Really wanted to get some branding done for a while. Here are the progress photos of the logo artwork I've been designing for myself.

Taxidermy beginnings with Kirstin

I've had a love for Taxidermy ever since I was little, starting from those first few trips to the Natural History and Horniman museums and vague memories of flicking through the Walter Potter catalogue of anthropomorphised critters and Victorian Cabinets of wonder and curiosity. I went to a mouse Taxidermy class held by the Last Tuesday Society a year or two ago and it did not go well, I managed to completely destroy a poor mouse pelt and it was impossible to stuff after I'd clumsily torn holes in the skin. I decided to have another try with the intent of practicing more and eventually using Taxidermy as a medium in my art work through some sort of illustration-animal sculptural combination. The peeling was the relatively easy bit. Then I immersed the pelt in Borax salt to absorb any remaining moisture and then removed any excess fat. The stuffing wasn't so easy. I used cotton wool as it's easily malleable, wood wool was also an option but for such a small animal it seemed a bit pointless and cotton wool was easily accessible and just as good. I'm proud of my rat, I would have preferred to have found my specimen myself as this rat was bred for snake munchies, but it was a good starting point and I really enjoyed doing it despite my ethical concerns. It was an incredibly intimate experience and satisfying that the final result actually resembled a rat and not a bulbous mass of cotton, fur and whiskers. He is a little skinny and tubular and his face isn't quite right but for my first try I'm pretty happy with him. Kirstin was a brilliant teacher and really let me get involved with the animal inside and out without a step by step guide, it's an incredibly personal thing, I'm sure methods differ but I felt very comfortable doing it on my own and picking away at flesh and fat to then mould and shape it after gently prodding cotton wool and wire under the skin and getting to know the rats body. I'm getting my tool kit together slowly and have every intention of practicing. I plan to write my dissertation on Fashions of Taxidermy in art and clothing and why there seems to be a revival in interest for it. I think it makes all the difference when you have experience with it rather than appreciation from a far.