I keep having a dream that I am wearing a necklace made with some sort of animal claws. I would like to create this piece for myself, but I am hesitant to buy from just any source. Mainly, I don't support the hunting and killing of animals for pleasure or sport, or even so some company can make money off of them. I guess I lean toward my Native American side and only believe in killing when necessary, for food or if the entire animal is going to be used. I would like to make this piece, but I want to do so in an informed and compassionate way if possible. Is such a thing even possible? I do eat meat and I believe in the cycle of life. I wouldn't adorn myself with fur, so I am feeling slightly weird about bone and claws. What do you all think?
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Connecticut
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Tue, April 1, 2008 - 8:34 PMWe hunt and we are grateful to the animal and teach our children that too. We use as much as possible to honor that animal.
That being said, buying animal parts can be a shady situation. You can never really know how this animal part came to be in a baggie on a shelf.
There are also laws against picking up certain animal parts even when found dead. In AK it was against the law for us to take eagle feathers from a dead eagle. I think if you were native then the law was different. I would certainly check locally what your laws are. You can call the wildlife feds or the conservation groups in your area.
If you are having this dream over and over perhaps it is something calling you to make yourself informed and champion those who have no voice. I totally respect anyone who is willing to question before satisfying a desire! If you want you could contact a tribe locally and see if they are having pow wows any time soon, usually it's spring and fall I think. They will have lots of vendors there and most things will be handmade and they will probably know the history of the animal too. Good luck! -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Tue, April 1, 2008 - 9:57 PMYou could start keeping your eye out for roadkill. & go to the library to learn how to process game. Making sure, of course, as Kathy mentioned, that you aren't violating any laws.. even if a critter is roadkill, if they are on your state's protected list, it could be trouble. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 8:23 AMI actually have a "roadkill kit" in my car (o: ....
but I want to remind you that the chances of a rabid animal finding its way to the road and getting hit is greater than a non-rabid animal getting hit. Handling the animal and dealing with it's (albeit dead) juices is potentially dangerous for you to do. There are other diseases that can be transferred via handling dead critters too. So be warned and be careful if you choose to go this route. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 8:35 AMI can vouch for the rabid thing. When I was 15 a friend and I were chased down the road by a rabid fox. A quit thinking neighbor heard us screaming at his little ones to go inside and he came out and shot it. Good thing he has great aim. The fox was awfully close to us at the time. Great point to bring up, I had forgotton til now.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 3:13 AMI was thinking the same thing, I made a necklace from weathered sheep vertabrae I found. I think it's a good way to honour the animal. I'd never want to use anything that was killed only for it's claws/teeth.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 3:51 AMi'd second contacting tribal people in your area
they would probably have good information and they'd probably be pretty trustworthy
people often say that animal parts for crafts or something are taken from animals who were used entirely but there are so many loopholes for hunters, it's insane. i'd imagine that native americans, having that respect built into their culture and being raised on it, would probably be more trustworthy than a regular company or something. fire mountain says that their bone beads come from animals killed for food, but i mean, unless they're literally standing there while the animal is processed and then the bones are taken to be turned into beads, a hunter could tell you anything
also, the idea of using parts of animals already dead, like roadkill or old skeletons, that's a good way to avoid that issue altogether. there's a lady who makes art out of bones she finds, some of it looks pretty cool :) if i was going to make a bone piece, that's what i'd do. i dont believe in hunting. there's just so much wrong with it in the modern world.
ANYWAY, whatever you do, make sure you have rubber gloves and bleach! =p
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 4:39 AMWould it be an option to make claws out of some sort of modelling clay or other compound that would look real? That way you could have the look you want without worrying about animals.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 8:47 AM -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 9:09 AMThose are great, Shamsa! -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 10:27 AMThank ye! I kinda want one for myself now. It would look really nice with some big chunky beads like amber or something and maybe some kuchi spacers...hmmm... inspired now! -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 11:17 AMAntlers are shed naturally every year, usually in the fall.. If you do alot of hiking or know any loggers you might be able to find some..
The cut out easily and polish well.. Very nice to make buttons out of... -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 11:23 AMOppps forgot to add this part..
I love you ladies!! Nice to see that other people think the same way i do.. I do not wear any fur and want to know where and how any natural products i buy are acquired.. Even wood and gems. I do not wear diamonds from South Africa nor do i wear anything made of wood from endangered trees..
On a side note and i think this is gross.. The other day in Winners there was a real python skin purse for sale.. Yeck to the python first of all!!
And then the price was out of my budget just a little bit anyway.. It was $799 cdn.. I told the staff at customer service i condidered it offensive and they just shrugged..
Another source for teeth might be your vetrenarian. Sadly most teeth and bone from dentists offices are considered hazardous biological waste and must be destroyed to prevent the spread of infection and desease. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 12:18 PMIt goes against canadian veterinary practice to give out teeth etc to anyone other than the owner. It is hard work to pull a canine tooth, and most vets will not do it post mortem. I am a vet hospital manager and although each province has different bylaws, they are all a little leary when it comes to giving out bones etc. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Sun, April 6, 2008 - 3:20 PMI'm gonna add (as a Vet Tech) that most teeth that are pulled from a pet are diseased and not in any sort of suitable condition for use in art.. And you wouldn't want to since there is some VERY nasty bacteria that resides in the mouth- Plus, we have to split most of them up get them out.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 1:01 PMHi Kathleen!
You just reminded me - when I got my puppy fixed a few months ago - the vet pulled one of her puppy teeth AND GAVE IT BACK TO ME! I was a bit shocked.... thinking maybe I put it under her doggy bed for the PuppyDog Tooth Fairy....
Anwho! PM me if you are interested in a puppy tooth - it is about 3/4" long. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 3:52 PMHmmm i think too much! LOL but don't the butchers at the grocery store still give away, or sell, bones?
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 7:37 AMthis is another great idea. back home we had about 4 large racks of antlers that my grandfather found while wandering in the woods. :)
no deer were harmed in the making of this collection :) haha
you could cut the points off of shed antlers and use those in lieu of claws -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 8:02 AMArrrg! My husband and I have looked for years for sheds. And we have herds of deer around us. They even come right up to the house. I just don't get it.... (mumbling under my breath). I would love to buy some if anyone just doesn't know what to do with theirs;)
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 6:54 AMgood lord! that's an amazing bead! :D
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 8:52 AMI guess I tend to lean toward my Native side as well. Especially in the sense that, if you are going to kill it you better get the most out of it as you can. I try to make sure what I have are the by product of the food industry. Right now I have some deer toes. People aren't going to kill the deer for its toes but since it is already dead it bests honors the deers' life to make use of all of its gifts. If you are planning on doing some harvesting your self I would suggest starting off with some dermested (flesh eating) beetles. Put the bones in, wait a few days and voila. picked clean. Of course the length of time it needs to stay in depends on how much meat there is and how many beetles there are, but you get the picture. Boiling does wonderous things as well. In general, if it is an animal that is used for food you can feel pretty sure that it isn't being killed solely for its fur or claws.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 9:14 AMOn a side note:
Two of our dogs got into a fight and our old dog Canuck got his top canine knocked out. It took a chunk of bone too. The hubby has had Canuck longer than he has had me, a true friend through and through. So he asked the vet to keep that tooth and I'll be making him a necklace sometime. Sad dogs don't live forever. This way he will always have a bit of his buddy with him after he passes.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 9:19 AMCheck this guy out; he's Lakota; I buy all my claws and teeth for jewelry making from him. He is reasonable and very fast with shipping!
stores.ebay.com/Minute-Bear-Trading
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 9:54 AMi always wondered if people would think i was really morbid if I put my own wisdom teeth on some kind of jewelery.
they let me keep them (all of them came out in one piece) and the dentist even drilled holes through them so I could string them together. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 9:58 AMCool dentist!
I think they are actually a little more freaky than we thought. I had one help me cast my face for a Halloween mask I was making. He told me about casting various body parts in dentist school! LOL!
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 10:05 AMThat would be so cool! Mine came out in little bits so I couldn't do it. That is no more morbid as my husband trying to get pieces of the bone from his leg when he lost it in an accident. We didn't get there in time, they had already incinerated it. They were supposed to let us know when the holding period was up, but they thought it might be too traumatic!?! So why did we ask you to call?? I digress, No, not morbid. Very cool. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 10:09 AMTry ebay- look up taxidermy. I'm an artist, I work in ceramic, bone, teeth, fur, and feathers. You will have to drill your own holes and stuff... but you will be quite surprised by what is available via taxidermy suppliers!
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 12:10 PM -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 12:29 PMok, now i'm curious.. no mention on the site (that I saw) about where these human bones (are they real?) came from.... -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 10:22 AMShe gets them from a medical supply type company. Where they get them from, I don' t know...
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 12:58 PMDidn't think I would be, but I'm a little freaked out. It's not like I haven't been around bones- I've had extra bones removed from me (yep my feet grew extra tiny little bones near my ankle) and my husbands bones are, well, several of them are now missing. But there is something about wearing a human finger earring where I don't know where it came from. A little too CSI for me :) Did they come from old science skeletons?
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 5:42 PMI have quite a few deer antlers that my old mama dog used to bring up in the yard. I even have a set with the top part of the skull attached...lovely altar piece to represent the stag god.
I can't take these with me when I move overseas, so I'd be willing to sell them pretty cheaply...they can be crosscut or even put onto a headpiece or something similar, for a really tribal look.
As far as the dream goes...do you get any feeling of what kind of claws these may be? Dream images are rife with symbolism, so it could be tapping in to your psyche to try to tell you something...maybe to delve a bit deeper into your background? Either way, it's appealing to your 'animal' nature, so try to pay special attention and you may be able to figure it out. Could be your totem animal. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 6:24 PMYou know, you can get in touch with local and even nationwide zoos and ask after recently dead animals there. They don't have anything else to do with them, and if you'll pay the shipping or pick them up, a zoo will send you these things. I know of one zoo that was published worldwide for this. They kept these birds that were very endangered because people hunted them for the feathers. So the zoo gave away the molted feathers for FREE. Reduced the poaching of the wild birds by an incredible percent.
You may have to call a good many zoos, seeing as how they're animals aren't dropping dead left and right. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 6:42 PMNice idea, but I know that not all zoos will comply. As a former professional zookeeper-type we had very strict rules about disposition of dead animals and no animal or part of any animal was released to the public. Moulted bird feathers were disposed of as well.
I know it seems wasteful but it's all done for a reason, like the burning of elephant ivory.
I agree that taxidermists (and roadkill) are your best bet for commonplace stuff. Anything coming from a state or federally protected species is going to be harder to come by, and probably illegal to possess. All nongame US birds (except for the common pigeon, starling, and English sparrow) are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, that makes possession of parts, including naturally-shed feathers, illegal for most people.
All this makes it tough to find legal, sustainably-harvested animal bits. : (
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 7:23 PMUnfortunately, claws are VERY hard to get from taxidermists. This I know. While you can buy furs from your local taxidermist at a ridiculously high price, claws are almost never available. Simply because any animal they get with claws will get tanned with them on there, whether as a rug or a stuffed. Teeth are easier, because not everyone gets their bobcats stuffed with the mouth wide open.
Bones are wicked easy, because they just throw out the innards. But!!! HUGE but. Do NOT just boil the animal. Clean as much of it out as you possibly can first. The taxidermist does not gut the animal, so if you boil it to try to soften and remove muscle from bone, you will boil stomach acids and bile also. WOW!!! does that stink beyond reason!!!
So, you can scrape as much muscle and stuff off as you can, and then boil the half cleaned bones, no problem. And the dead animal is free. Or you can buy bones from a local butcher, who usually sell them cheap by the pound for things like soup bases. But some bones may not come whole from there as butchering cuts through things like shoulder blades.
Can anyone tell I have tried to get animal parts with the same standards? -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 10:45 PMboneroom.com/ Its a very good site, integer.
I bougt on e-bay a replica, that also looking good. -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 6:31 PMHmm.. some interesting stuff on that page, Zenobia. Thank you...
My favorite:
"A baculum (the singular form, latin for "stick") is a bone found in the penis of most mammals."
Yeah, I don't think I need to hang THAT from my neck *giggle*
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 7:11 PMI want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the wonderful and thoughtful answers in this post. I knew I was coming to the right place! Its also helpful to see that other people have the same feelings, and to find out what you have been doing around them.
My main totem is the wolf, and I most assuredly would not want to in any way encourage the hunting of this animal for parts. So that I will leave alone. I think that in my dream the claws I see are bear claws. I am going through some changes in my life right now, and every time that happens bears start showing up, either in my real life or in my dreams.
I really liked the faux claw sites! Thank you everyone again! I'm still reading and searching the sites you provided. I thank you! -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Wed, April 2, 2008 - 7:48 PMAnd bears are one of the tough ones when you are trying to make sure that the animal isn't killed just for the fur and claws. Some people eat the bear they kill, some kill purely for the skin and heads. I have seen replica wolf claws. A way to have a touch of your totem with you -
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 6:57 AMyeaaah bear hunting is very controversial in this country. alot of bear hunters are very irresponsible, and the fish and wildlife service has done little, if anything, to curb the irresponsible behavior. so i'd say, the safest bet with the bear thingie would be to go with fake ones. unless you KNOW someone who recently shot a bear, and used every single part of it, and it didnt have cubs that were left behind. part of the problem with the legal bear hunts is that the hunters will shoot moms who obviously have cubs. and the little dudes are left to fend for themselves, and if they survive they become "nuisance bears" who raid trashcans and run into people's houses.
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 7:49 AMKeep us updated! I'd love to see what you come up with. :o)
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 10:30 AMYou can also google Native American craft supplies--there are several online businesses that sell pow wow costuming stuff. In my profile pic, there's a fake hawk claw hanging from my bra that I bought from a Native American craft place. Often the fake bird claws are used at the end of a rattle's handle.
I do still wear leather but as a vegetarian I definitely understand feeling reluctant to wear real claws and teeth and bone. I'll still wear the things I bought before I really started thinking about it, but I try to avoid buying new stuff now. I know most bone is a byproduct of the meat industry, but it's still in some small way contributing to the demand for dead animals.
Found stuff is totally cool though, I've got some deer skulls and antlers that I found while working for the Forest Service decorating my dining room :-)
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Re: Bone, claws and bits
Thu, April 3, 2008 - 5:28 PMI have bought animal bones, antlers and turtle shells from a Native American man who traps and hunts animals as food for his family and then uses all of their parts in trade or some other function. He is a vendor often at a pow wow that I attend in Chartlesville, PA around Labor Day.
Are there any pow wow's coming up in your area?
On the metaphysical side, d
