almost october, nature and bones...

my favorite time of day...just before dawn. it's dark...quiet.

my favorite month...october...is almost here.
october brings cooler weather. the leaves are starting to turn shades of red...
and  floating down to the ground.
october also brings halloween! probably my favorite holiday.
zombies. ghosts. vampires & werewolves. all things spooky and dark....and fun!
haunted houses...horror and all things ghoulish...spiders & their webs...

stepping out the front door the other morning...we couldn't believe the
size of this spider web!
from the porch roof...down to the railing!
NOW...it REALLY looks like we were getting ready for halloween!

earlier this week we heard the Barred Owl's  distinctive HOOT out back...it was still light out so i grabbed my camera. usually it's too dark to get a decent picture. i was lucky this day!

   and a few more cool pictures from this past week...

((click here for  more info  about spiders & daddy long legs))

...and for those of you that know about my 'bone collecting'...i found a hog carcass earlier this week. or maybe it was a boar? i'm not sure. all i do know is that it stunk...was pretty clean of all meat. BIG rib cage with spine...intact. i wouldn't have even known it was a hog...except for the hooves. obviously dumped along the side of the road by a hunter...it wasn't there the previous day.  my son & i tossed it over the fence, into a field...so it wouldn't get run over or dragged away. i'll go claim it this weekend with sam. and if it still smells, which it probably will...i'll set it way out back...cover it with wire or something...and let the insects and weather continue the cleaning process!

i also finished another "Bone Garden" art piece. (you can check out the Planet Beenderen tab above!)

this one is made of raccoon, armadillo and deer bones. 

"Chief Beenderen: Protector of the Planet"

well, it's nearly 5:00. 

AM that is. 

time for another cup of coffee.

it's kinda funny how i wake up earlier on the weekend than i do during the week. 

i think it's because i don't want to waste any time. 

'my' time. 

'free' time.

i don't want to sleep away any hours.

There are never enough hours in a day, 

but always too many days before Saturday.

have a safe weekend...

enjoy. be adventurous. discover.

laura  :]

back to the BoNES

it's been a while since i posted about one of my passions...

BoNE Collecting & decorating!

last weekend sam and i rode the 4-wheeler across the street 

to the field where i find most of my bones. 

this deer spine isn't quite ready for me...

i left it there so the insects can clean it a bit more...

then i'll come back and gather the vertebrae and ribs...and further clean 'em.

 luckily...i'm the only *weirdo* in the neighborhood who seems 

to care anything about BoNES!  

so the only competition i have is with the vultures. 

 i can handle that.  i can share.  :]  

that day i also found a couple of squirrel skulls...

and a complete raccoon hand. i tried to pick it up in one piece, but all the ligaments were gone and it fell to pieces. so i collected them all, putting them into an empty water bottle...to be cleaned and then reassembled.

i collected a bunch of other bones. all deer...vertebrae & ribs. 

mostly clean...and sun-bleached. i just need to sanitize them. 

OK...now on to my Bone Art. a while ago i actually picked up roadkill...from the street i live on. an armadillo & young raccoon. i brought the (stinky) bodies to the house. put them waaaaay out back...covered with a grating & a couple of cinder blocks to keep other animals from stealing my cache! ha!  

i let the insects do their thing...until all that was left 

was a couple of piles of (fairly dirty) bones!

i cleaned them in a mixture of peroxide & water. 

              

NOW for the ART part! i wanted to make another one of my BoNE GARDEN "Scenes from Planet Beenderen Series" (Beenderen means 'bones' in Dutch). ((if you click on my ART SAMPLING PAGE tab  above you can see a few more of these))  i do these on  small 4" X 4" beveled wood plaques. i sand it first to smooth it out, hammer a sawtooth hanger on the back and give it a base coat of white.
then using a small piece of sponge, 

i added other colors.

i started playing around with the little bones!!  (now, i know this sounds pretty strange...but these raccoon and armadillo bones feel so much different in my hands than the bigger deer bones i'm used to! they have a different sound...when you hold a few in your hand and mix them around.)

not quite right...it needs more...this little bone man from Planet Beenderen needs to be a little more unusual. and he needs to be IN the Bone Garden!

so i gave him one pair of  LONG arms...curving down to the ground...

and then a pair of lower shorter arms...added  some flowers made of the armadillo scales.  the HEAD is a raccoon vertebrae and the FEET are the little pads between the vertebrae.  i also added the wire moons which are always in the sky on Beenderen.

well...it's almost finished. i need to spray it with a clear acrylic coating. and i MIGHT fool around with bone man's eyes...possibly add a couple of tiny rhinestones. not sure yet. AND to come up with a good name!

before i go...i need to mention a couple of links...if you have a fascination with bones too...

you might want to check out this group on FB:  The Animal Skulls Group

the admin there has ID'd a number of my 'finds'!!!!

here's a site with some info on cleaning the bones you find: The Skull Site

and lastly, here's a cool link...kind of educational...

all about skulls & bones : Skulls Unlimited

i'm going to leave you now with a couple of other pictures i took while bone hunting...

^the butterfly above is the Eastern Black Swallowtail^

this fence lizard REALLY blends in >>

 

the Gulf Fritillary...

well...that's it for now...

be safe...where ever you may roam...and thanks for stopping by...

laura  :]

looking for BoNES

over the weekend i went scouting in the field across the street...looking for BoNES. some i use for my ART and some i sell UNdecorated at my shop on etsy. this field USED TO BE A FOREST with trees so thick you could barely make it through there. but a couple of years ago the bulldozers showed up and cut ALL the trees down except for a few scattered here and there. it was depressing!! but the bright side was that the field was cleared and i'm now able to find all kinds of treasures! bones, old bottles, old shell casings...and so on.
i thought i'd post a few pic's of my HUNT!

opening the front door this is what i saw on the front porch. it's the florida Anole.

then another...

on the way out of the yard...a spiderweb!

down the driveway...a frog...in camo??!!

...and a caterpillar...

a leaf...seemingly suspended in air...yet dangling from a web

spotted these vultures by the 'mud pit' and thought "YEAH! must be a carcass nearby!" nope! i guess they were just HOT and staying near the water...so i rode on...

finally...found some deer bones!! these were still a little too 'fresh' and i left them to sun dry a bit more. but i found other small vertebrae bones which i collected.

the bones i find in this field...and near where i live...are the carcasses dumped by hunters. my favorite find is the skull and jawbones...but more times than not...the carcass is minus the skull! oh well!  i keep searching...and hoping...(weird, you think??!!)

anyway...here's a picture of my latest 4X4" wood plaque with decorated bones...from my "Planet Beenderen" series!! 

 i call this one ""The SILVER-WINGED Neornithine 

in Planet Beenderen's BONE GARDEN"

that's it for now...gotta get ready for work...

BoNE aRT and stuff in the works

i call this one 

"small bone-creeper burrowing in the Bone Garden"

~*~From the BONE Garden~*~

"Scenes from Planet Beenderen"

(Beenderen = Bones in Dutch)

created on a small 4"X4" painted natural grain beveled wood plaquethe flowers, trees and 'bone-creeper' in this garden

are made of deer bones & teeth 

acrylic painted highlights in gold, dark red and brown.  the 'bone-creeper' is multi colored...as all wildlife on Planet Beenderen are!!  :)  clear glaze sealer  sawtooth hanger on back

(just added to ForestWalkArt on etsy)

~~and remember- ALL THE BONES I USE are found in nearby fields. They are collected, cleaned, sanitized and decorated - by me.~~

and MORE in the works...

the small skull with flowers coming out of it's ears...i'm not sure what it is...

a 'possum?? armadillo?? i have to look up pic's and find out.  and of course the small 'painted & boned' wood plaque is another of the Bone Garden series!!  haven't quite finished it yet.

NEW (real) Bone Art finished!!

if you're keeping up with my "planet Beenderen" series...4" X 4" wood plaques which are first painted and then a 'scene' from the Bone Planet is created....WELL, i've just finished another!!  this one's a little different. i painted 2 different deer vertebrae bones - one is a colorful tree - the other is the white-faced, red-eyed Beenderen Hawk...perched atop the tree. and like the other plaques, there are the wire moons in the sky!

this picture, taken from the side view,  shows the 3-D effect:

yes...i know...it's all a little strange...weird...but i LOVE working with BONES!!

i have to let it completely cure for 24 hours after being sprayed with acrylic clear coat...then i'll be adding to my etsy ForestWalkArt shop!  :)

something a little different

Planet Beenderen Series. What does BEENDEREN mean?? >>it's Dutch for Bone!>> why a Planet?? hmmm...why not? a planet where everything is made of bones...the flowers...sun...moons. These are done on small 4"X4" wood plaques...painted...decorated...sealed with glaze finish.
ok...i was in the mood to do another wooden plaque...another "Scene from Planet Beenderen". BUT i wanted to do something a little different...add a butterfly?? would there be butterflies on Planet Beenderen?? ((well, since i discovered this planet...i'd be the only one to know this, right? so, if i say there are butterflies there...who could argue??!!)) WELL, they're there...i saw them!!  the one big difference...is that the butterflies from Beenderen...have BONE bodies! HERE's a PIC of my WORK SPACE after just starting this new CREATION...

I painted the plaque...repainted...and repainted again...until i finally liked it!  that 'spongey mottled' look...brown beveled border. i added jute...unevenly bordered. the butterfly's body is a painted tooth. the flowers are teeth. and then there's the deer vertebrae disc/pad floating up in the sky!!

so now...i just need to let all the glue set...then i'm HOPING when it comes time to spray the entire SCENE with acrylic glaze...that the butterfly will still look just as beauty-ful!  

then i'll add it to my etsy shop!!   http://www.etsy.com/shop/ForestWalkArt

~~Have a happy day~~

bone, teeth & butterfly wings

a few posts ago i mentioned that i was working on another Bone Garden wood plaque. i'm almost finished!! tomorrow i'll spray coat with acrylic. as i mentioned before, all the Bone Garden pieces are 'from the Planet Beenderen' (Beenderen = plural for Bone in Dutch).  this one i may call 'Molar Mountain' or something silly like that...thanks to my son Travis for coming up with that one!! we're brainstorming...weird...catchy...silly names. sam came up with 'Orthodontic Plains'. Molar Mountain on Planet Beenderen has a colorful background with deer teeth and the little pad between the vertebrae make up the sun...wire flowers coming out of deer molars and wire moons...complete this 'scene from Planet Beenderen'

...and here are a couple of  pendants "butterfly wings under glass" and "bits & pieces of magical butterfly wings" in a vial necklace!!


Have a happy day! :) laura

working on a few new things

i have a couple of things going on at the same time...i bought these glass pendants...2" round and also rectangular shaped. i tried putting butterfly wings on them...hmmm, i think i posted pic's earlier...WELL, when i sealed them on there, the colors in the wings VANISHED!!  which is really kinda weird...because i use butterfly wings on my bottle art...and window hangers too!  anyway, i put snake skin (from 'monty' my ball python's shedding) on a couple of the glass pendants...but i'm not sure yet what i will add to these...so they sit on my work table until that light bulb goes off in my head!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i'm also working on a new BONE GARDEN from Planet Beenderen...on small 4' X 4" wood plaque. i painted it...with the idea of doing a meteor shower...then add bone flowers, etc...but i didn't like the way it looked. so i repainted it >> cut up a sponge...made a tiny square piece and sponged the dk blue paint over the already painted wood...so you can see glints of color underneath!!  i'll add some deer molars...and other teeth...also the little pads between the deer vertebrae...to make flowers and a moon...i'll post a picture when i'm finished.  here's the wood so far...painted...

here's my work table with the painted wood plaque and some teeth...

well...have to go get ready for my afternoon app't...only ONE massage today. sometimes that's not a bad thing, although i wish i was a little busier...it gives me time to work on my art. >>OH, this morning a friend of mine, Irma, came over and we trekked through the field across the street looking for...finding...and digging up some native florida plants! she also took some samples/leaves of plants so she can ID them...i'll have to post some pic's of my gardens here at home...maybe next time...have a happy day!! (please let me know what u think if u stop by and read this!!)  :)

me? compulsive? and my Bone Gardens!

...sometimes i can be a little...compulsive...a perfectionist...when i do something...i have set out expectations for myself...and i won't quit til i'm satisfied. when i 'make' something...create...if it's not JUST how i saw it in my mind ...then it's not good enough. others may say "what's wrong with it? it looks great!" ((not to me it doesn't))...then, back to the ole drawing board.>>i have given away so many of my 'creations' over the years...first, because i just wasn't happy with it...and second, because someone said they liked it!! i've NEVER been good at putting a monetary value on my art. i enjoy making these things...it makes me feel good when i know that someone appreciates what i have created...so why not just give it away!! and so...for ME...this is why Etsy is a learning experience in many ways! i don't have to see the 'customer' face-to-face...so therefore the tempting option to just GIVE AWAY my 'art'...isn't there! ((well, i have had friends and family tell me i don't charge enough...so maybe in a way......ok, nevermind)) in my own defense, i have gone in to edit my 'prices' from time to time...adding 50 cents here...a dollar there. so i AM getting better! ha!

today i wanted to post a couple of my things...these are '3D, mixed media'...done on 4"x4" beveled wood grain plaques...which i paint...and proceed to create a 'Bone Garden". yep! the flowers are made of bone & teeth, the moons are wire i twisted into small spirals. i LOVE making these!! (i've sold one!) you might notice that "Planet Beenderen" is in the title name of these pieces (on etsy). while trying to come up with a creative name for these bone 'pictures'...i decided to look up the word BONE in different languages! i went with Dutch (since i have that in my blood)...Beenderen = Bones!!