As I tidy my house (which is a fairly rare occurrence), I found a third drawing of the taxidermy cases of Ipswich Museum from back in 2017. It was meant to be part III of the blog series (parts I and II links). Being the solidly organised person that I am, I had mislaid this drawing, and have deleted all associated pictures of the museum too. So, just enjoy what could have been, including a particularly worried looking brindle nail tailed wallaby and smug serval. However, in

A quick note to say, if you haven't been lucky enough to receive a panacea cure (available by post up until 2012) from the immortal prophet Octavia (1866-1934), you may need help to cope with the likelihood that sometime in the next hundred years, you may also turn out to not be immortal. So I'd like to draw your attention to the next Dying for Life event on May 12th... Tickets for "A lively look at death and dying" available now, here! Meanwhile, if you were unaware that pan

Through some fantastic luck, a chance meeting a few years ago sparked my interest in skeletons and came together as a superb visit to an osteoarchaeology collection. And this happened on my birthday. How brilliant is that? Victorian casts of female (top) and male (bottom) skulls, showing strong sexual identifying features This osteoarchaeology collection (see portfolio here) is usually kept behind locked doors and used for teaching the students at Cambridge University. Not on

18,050* people were at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies last month. *This figure is an estimate. But I guess that 50 alive people came to visit some of the 18,000 human remains of the Duckworth Collection, kept at the LCHES. Of course, because of the peculiar sensitivities of the British, most of the human remains weren’t (and aren’t ever) on display. But there were an impressive mass of human and hominid skull casts in the main reception room; the best I

Okay, not really. I have spent most of my recent Friday's enjoying the wonderful Robert Lloyd Parry (of Nunkie theatre) performing readings of H. G. Well's short stories of science fiction. His one-man performance of The Time Machine was stunning (and I was close enough to the stage to smell the cucumber!), and it is always a pleasure to see what he is up to. This time it was merrily combined with a reason to visit the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. It

A very quick note to say thanks to everyone who came along to my installation at the Day of the Dead evening at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on Friday - it was lovely to meet you all and chat about morbid things. And especial thanks to whoever made me a spider and anonymously left it with the pickled jars. I'm really touched! *** Quick update to add a few shots of the installation - which really don't capture the massive decorations and mexican vibe go

Look at these beauties! I think I'm in love! These gorgeous octopuses? Octopi? Octopodes? Beautiful aren't they? But they're in Eastbourne. And I'm significantly not. And they're up for sale next week. And they won't go in the post (despite having their own travelling cases.. they used to be part of a taxidermy mobile library!) And couriers are costly :( I know they don't (now) have the cunning of Inky (who escaped from his aquarium back to the ocean), and they never got to p

Finally had the opportunity to spend some time with a camera in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. I lingered at least an hour longer than I had planned, drawn by the day of the dead exhibit upstairs. I love that museums make room for folkart objects (things with the skill level that I could have made them). It gives a great feeling of accessibility. And if only I would think of making a skull with hair rollers in, my work could be included in one of the gl

So sorry for the terrible quality of the photo. But it was on a behind the scenes tour, at night, taken through the door of a freezer. This is the reality of taxidermy conservation in the 21st Century. One big walk in freezer. Of the size I haven't seen since working in ice cream research. Or McDonalds. But the freezer kills the bugs and mites that can slowly destroy these antique skins. However, it is also necessary to protect the skins from frostbite, so they are frozen whi