OsteoSophy on Etsy

I added intercaps in the name, mostly because it looked nicer on the banner. So, yeah. I opened (another) Etsy shop to sell my new line of copper animal skull jewellery (because I don't already have too many things to do).

Here are the first few items for sale (and after this, I probably won't mention this stuff again, unless I make something really exciting, but I will add a widget or link or something to the sidebar).

First, I made a thylacine (above, posing on a whitetail deer skull), because everyone needs a thylacine. Right?

 Then a fox, which I really made for myself. I listed it for sale, but if someone buys it, I'll have to make another for me.

 A badger, which never fails to lodge that silly song "badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom" in my head (don't know what I'm talking about? go here).

Finally, a snowshoe hare, because things other than carnivores have cool skulls, too. I've got a whole pile of drawings ready to resize so I can make more--deer, goat, dolphin, bear, various birds, some herps. Eventually I'll add some dinosaurs.

Oddities

Last night I was finally able to catch a couple of episodes of the Discovery Channel show Oddities (I'm in Canada, and US shows, if we get them at all, usually get here much later). It's a lot like Pawn Stars or American Pickers--in fact, even the wording of some of the commentary is so similar it made me wonder if they're using the same writers--but set in an antique shop that caters to collectors of, well, oddities.

Aside from being a total blast for anyone interested in weird stuff, there was a lot for a bone collector (or other skelephile) to love. There are plenty of skulls and jarred specimens in the background, and one of the episodes I watched featured the skull collections (mostly human) of one of the employees and his rival, a chiropractor and regular customer. Said employee (my apologies--I haven't got their names stuck in my brain yet) also constructed a Beauchene (or "exploded") skull from a disarticulated skull that his rival/friend brought in.

Very cool. And both skull collectors had fantastic shelving, too! I want those glass-fronted cases for my collection. And for my books. So check it out, and have a look at the website, too, it'll give you a taste of the show, and there are some neat exclusives.

My only quibble is that the episodes are only a half hour each, so there's no real time to delve into the history and background of the objects, or the lives of the proprietors and their colourful cast of customers. Still, an excellent show, and one I might even pick up on DVD if it gets a release.

Skull image copyright Niko Silvester. Please don't use without permission, thanks.

Shopping for Bones

For no particular reason other than that I have a number of links to places you can buy bones and bone replicas, I'm going to start this blog with a short list of online shops. I haven't purchased from all of these places, so don't take their inclusion here as an endorsement. Please let me know if you have a good or bad experience with any of them, and I'll add it when I eventually turn this list into its own separate page.

Real Bones

• The Bone Room - I've never shopped here, but the Mythbusters do, so I suspect they're a good place to buy from.


• Evolution - I've shopped in their physical store and it was one of the highlights of my trip to NYC; I tried to mail-order once but the item I wanted (shark in a jar) required a special (expensive) permit to send to Canada, so I canceled, but they're probably good for US customers and non-special-permit stuff for outside US customers. Plus, they have a great name.


• Skulls Unlimited - I haven't yet purchased anything from here, but they do have a fantastic selection of both real bones and replicas.


• MilesCo Scientific - Never shopped here, and they don't have a huge selection, but might be a good resource for some things.

Fossil Replicas

• Bone Clones - I am dying (figuratively) to buy something here. They have gorgeous replicas of both contemporary and fossil bones, in a huge variety of animals. I could go very broke very easily. They make a lot of the replicas found for sale from other shops, but I've never ordered from them myself. Yet.


• Skulls Unlimited - they also sell replicas.


• Dinosaur Corporation -  I bought an archaeopteryx skull replica from here, and it's a decent quality for the price (they had the best price I could find at the time) and got here (to Canada from the US) in good time and in good shape.


• The Dinosaur Store - I came across this place when I was looking for archaeopteryx skull replicas, but I haven't bought anything from them. They haven't got a huge selection, but the quality and prices seem reasonable.