Tag: pretty dead things

arsanatomica:

So….How do you examine the skeleton without removing it from the body?

Diaphonization is a chemical process that renders the soft tissue of the body transparent. The bone and cartilage are then stained with special dyes to make them visible through the transparent body.

The red coloring in these, comes from Alizarin, a pigment found in the dark red roots of the madder plant. It’s been used to dye fabric since ancient egypt. It possesses the curious proclivity to seek out and bond to calcium particles, making it an ideal stain for bone, and a vital component of many medical diagnostic procedures.

I took an interest in this process sometime last year. Here are some things I’ve made.

littlestwarrior:

Monster is cleaned up and part of the collection now.

I took some photos of him with Mama, the female opossum I picked up a few years ago. She’s the only other opossum skull currently in my collection. The size difference is staggering!

Monster is missing a few pieces and teeth, but I have a few others in the box with the rest of his bones that I need to dig through. He was found dead, mostly skeletonized, on my property a few weeks ago.

Monster makes the fourth opossum skeleton I’ve found on my small property. I believe he was hit by a car and wandered to a safer place where he passed.

I’m extremely happy to have such a huge opossum as part of my collection, but boy do I wish I could have seen him alive. I bet that was a sight!

artofmaquenda:

‘’The Fallen’’

I’ve made my final decision and chose yellow. Most people preferred the pink flowers and I liked that contrast also, but the shape of the yellow felt more right to me as it fits the theme of ‘’falling star/angel’’ more. 

I think yellow is nice to see in real life, but in photographs not so much…So I made the yellow more orange…I am pleased now 😀