And so it continues......

These fragments I have shored against my ruin....
T.S.Eliot The Wasteland


To live is to leave traces....
Walter Benjamin


3 weeks to go.....so much to do.....

10 mice, I magpie and a thrush .........then taxidermy over....well for now.........(the cat stole one of my stuffed mice!)

Need to finish putting 22ct moongold leaf (a mixture of gold, palladium and silver)on calf's head....(only wish it would stop smelling......it's been boiled, soaked in ammonia, dried, soaked in petrol, dried .....and still it smells..... just hope it wears off before exhibition)

About a quarter of the way through making a chicken bone chandelier

Not sure what to do with the pigeon wings?! or dried roses....

And need to start working on display.....(although John will help with that thank goodness) I want plinths and display cases so as to make a visual and theoretical link with both the museum and the church (i.e vitrine/reliquary)

a golden calf

Well Mr Edge the organic butcher who has been supplying me with all my bones for £1.00 a bag has done me proud. A calf's head for a fiver.........He is not allowed to deal with cow's heads ....I'm assuming due to BSE risks.... but a calf is ok.....

So difficult to prepare......eyes, nose, lips, hair on top of head..... all still in place and requiring removal......

I felt more repulsion than ambivalence towards the prospect of this.....Surprisingly it wasn't the eyes that caused me most problems ....they proved incredibly robust and tough to remove and resulted in a straight physical battle between me and the calf. It was the lips......they were soft and vulnerable........

Someone must be doing this all the time!