Bird head necklace

Craft & Design
Bird head necklace

birdheadnecklace.jpg

When your bird friend passes (this one died of natural causes), what do you do? Make a macabre bird head pendant, of course! Check out lots more taxidermy art posts over at CRAFT. [Thanks, Moxie!]

40 thoughts on “Bird head necklace

  1. Phillip Torrone says:

    this might be the best post ever on MAKE

  2. John says:

    Those of who love birds find this offensive…

    1. Doesn't matter says:

      It is in extremely poor taste. Animals are not for decoration.

      What’s next in this site? A necklace made of baby skulls?

  3. Phillip Torrone says:

    @john – “Those of who love birds find this offensive” – really? … they may want to cherish their beloved, now dead, pet this way. i don’t plan on preserving or stuffing any of the pets i have or will have but i think this is interesting. it’s a reminder of where feathers come from, maybe if everything had a face on it we’d think different about how we use or do not use resources :)

    it’s easy to say someone can be offended because there’s a good chance you can find someone who’s offended by something. i once met someone who complained that MAKE was offensive because we “use” too many right angles, seriously :)

  4. Phillip Torrone says:

    @Doesn’t matter – i’m just curious why you’re saying “Animals are not for decoration”. we wear leather, feathers in caps, wool, fur… i don’t understand why the same folks who have in person told me they do not like anything with animals sport leather ipod cases, leather shoes, etc… they seem to look down on taxidermy as something not moral.

    how is it in “poor taste”? taste isn’t something one person can speak for everyone about (thank goodness). i think it’s better to say “i don’t like this”. that being said, i’d never wear a bird head necklace.

    a “baby skull” necklace isn’t something we posted and you know that, i think you might be the one with the twisted ideas, don’t blame this site for those thoughts in your head! i’m pretty sure it’s not legal to make jewelry from human remains, but maybe someone can chime in on that.

  5. Volkemon says:

    I have the pelt from my favorite cat Moose, a maine coon. He passed from natural causes, and I still remember him fondly when looking at/handling the fur. Some people freak out, others understand.

    Heck, I saw the title “bird head necklace” and expected a string of skulls..this is a little better!

    In the hall at work, so far 5 people have seen the image. 2 grossed out, and 3 thought it was interesting.

  6. Anonymous says:

    FAIL
    ;-)

  7. Anonymous says:

    I find this eerie, and compelling, and not in bad taste at all.

    People need to lighten up.

  8. Maha says:

    Yes, i find other peoples reactions very interesting too.

    Wearning an animal head for a decoration seems bad taste to me but using feathers and leather is not.

    Just as stuffing your dead mother in a life-like pose that stares at you would be.. horrid. But perhaps keeping her glasses/favorite necklace/shoes/whatever would be a good token of remembrance. Just saying you wouldn’t wear your mothers fingers on a necklace because you miss her. Animals being inferior to humans doesn’t make it any less creepy to wear whole identifiable sections of them. As another example wearing a necklace with a pendant that held your mom’s ashes or a vial of blood would be considered acceptable (imo of course).

  9. David says:

    I do the same thing with mice I trap….

  10. marcel says:

    I know someone who made a purse from her cat. Perhaps you guys should meet up.

  11. Richard says:

    This is just wrong in so many ways, really gross. It makes my skin crawl.
    Taxidermy is just creepy and odd.

  12. AndyL says:

    Any sort of ‘creative’ taxidermy is pretty creepy.

    But I’m reasonably sure it’s the good kind of creepy.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Mr. Torrone is right… this really is no different than wearing leather or other animal products.

    That’s why I’m opposed to this and the wearing of any animal products (I’m vegan) – there are so many different and versatile synthetic and plant-based materials that wearing leather, fur, or any animal-derived fashion is needless and usually cruel.

    I will say this is far less inhumane than leather or fur, where the animals die horrible deaths, often after a horrible life. And leather is not just a by-product – many cows are killed solely for leather around the world every year.

    I hope I don’t come off as preachy – I just wanted to throw out an alternative viewpoint. Thanks to Make and Craft for featuring all sorts of things, even if the taxidermy is a bit creepy.

    1. Andy L says:

      You’re comparing industrially raising animals for clothing purposes to the creative disposal of a much loved pet?

      Out of curiosity, how would you have disposed of the dead pet? (Or are you opposed to owning pets in the first place?)

      Incidentally, if you don’t want to come off as preachy then posting two boiler-plate paragraphs of animal rights rhetoric that have nothing to do with the article tacked onto a single sentence with a horribly illogical comparison is probably not the winning strategy.

  14. Craig says:

    I think taxidermy is fine, but I’m one of those odd people that cherish a pet like a member of the family. It’s hard to quench the pain of a loved one lost, but taxidermy on a pet is so wrong. You wouldn’t put Uncle Dave on the wall after he’s gone. People who stuff pets and keep cremated remains in the home, really need to let go. Physically holding onto the corpse isn’t healthy, kinda Ed Gein-ish.
    Argue with that logic.

    1. Andy L says:

      You … didn’t have any logic in that post.

      You just asserted that “[X] is wrong” and that “[X] is unhealthy” … but didn’t back up either those statements with data or logical arguments.

      What you’ve got there is really more of an “opinion”.

      1. name redacted says:

        Andy L, he’s saying that nobody is mounting grandpa on the wall or using his ears as a belt buckle.. which as far as i’ve seen in life is very true. He says this is because of love for that person (and probably law/social norms). Sooo, if you loved a pet, you would not stuff it or make a purse from the kitty.

        Imo, the only reason it is popular is from the tradition of keeping trophies from a hunt. Other than that the dead animal is stripped of usable parts to consume or make into clothing. To preserve an animal corpse in a life-like form IS creepy.

        I also think keeping trophies from a hunt is dumb.. which i’m sure does not make any hunter happy. Why? Because i have actually had to fight and kill other people. I have zero desire to keep any momento from those times. The first man i killed was in Feb 2005. Wouldn’t it be creepy if i cut off his face and put it in my display case at home? hell yes it would be. I see no difference with animals. Oh, and i didn’t take any usable parts of the first guys body but i did take his ak, his ammo, a grenade, and his wallet. I never even opened the wallet, just turned all that crap in later that night.

        I really want to just delete all this but i’m taking my name off instead, i hope nobody is offended.. i’m sorry.

  15. Blake says:

    This is horrifying.

  16. Jason says:

    At first I thought this was pretty horrible, but then I started thinking about how cool it would be to have a mini-servo controlling the mouth to make it talk to people.

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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