Since we have some new readers, let me catch you up a bit. When my bio says that I’m a professional puppeteer, it really means it. So after feeling like a rock star this weekend, I’ve come back to the grind of daily routine, which happens to include building a springer spaniel.
To do that, I use an actual dog skull in order to make sure that I’ve got the dentition right. This one arrived the day before LaunchPad, so I kind of opened the box, went, “Yep, skull” and ignored it.
I pulled it out of the box today, along with the pair of eyeballs that arrived while I was gone. As before, the skull is a beautiful thing and striking in how different it is from the last dog skull. Spaniels have a much more pronounced forehead.
Now… do you see that oblong dark spot in the jaw? That would be a dried dermestid beetle. It’s wedged in a small hole in the bone. There are very few things that wig me out, but maggoty things fall into that category. Now, granted, this is a beetle and has a hard shell. It’s only the shape that is at all maggoty and yet… The notion of trying to pick it out makes my skin feel like a bajillion beetles are going to scuttle across me. Part of me wonders if I can get way with just encasing it in foam and pretending it doesn’t exist, except then, of course, the darn thing would fall out at an unexpected moment.
So there you go! The glamour of puppetry.
Is the beetle how they cleaned the skull? I seem to remember some forensic scientist who would put remains in a box with lotsa crawly wriggly things. The wee beasties would eat every thing but the bone. Voila.
Yep. They have a big vat of them which they call their hardest working employees.
So, you get a real skull; do I dare ask about the eyeballs?
Does the actual skull get used in the puppet, or do you use it as a guide?
They are glass eyeballs. I looked at silicone ones, but they were too expensive for this project.
And yes, the actual skull goes into the puppet. It’s mostly to get the teeth and mouth right.
I’d be happy to dig the beetle out of your skull on Friday.
…solely because this situation just gave me the opportunity to write that sentence, which I might never have been able to do otherwise.
See! You have just discovered one of my great joys of life as a puppeteer. Improbable sentences.
Honey, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my husband, it’s the wonder that is 2 stage epoxy. He loves the stuff so much we call him the epoxymoron. Hah hah!
Anyway, here’s what you do. You mix some up, shovel it into that beetle-hole, and once it cures it will be kinda like those tables you see at seafood restaurants, where there are creepy things like dead starfish underneath the two-inch-thick varnish, you feel safe and confident eating your fish and chips on there, and even leaning forward on your elbows, because the creepy things are imprisoned and can nevermore emerge to menace you, even if there is a full moon and they happen to resurrect.
Foam. Feh! Useless.
Mmmm… epoxy. That’s not a bad idea, if Rose doesn’t pick the beetle out first.
WHAT? YOU CAN BUY A SKULL?? WOW.
Oh yes! Best website, ever. Skulls Unlimited
Wow, what a f**king amazing site! I always wondered how difficult it would be to get a human skull, suitable for contemplation, as a desk paperweight. (My spouse would never stand to have the thing in the house, I’m afraid.) I see that obtaining one with all its teeth intact is likely to be more difficult, and probably much more expensive, eh? And the hominid reproductions page is fascinating, too. “I’d like a Lucy with dark finish, please.” Not to mention the incredible array of critters they have. . . .