Turtle

What a strange day yesterday was. I spent the first half in my room watching rugby on the internets while finally gluing together my turtle shell.

Not my turtle shell so much as a turtle's turtle shell. But, given he was hit by a car before a troop of ants and maggots ate most of his flesh I don't think he'll mind if I borrow it. Forever.

Pay special attention to how some of the patterning is red while the rest is yellow. All the pattern used to have red on them but because the layer covering the shell has come off the pigment has leached! Where it stayed stuck down the red remains. A pro taxidermist would have preserved the shell to keep the colour or maybe not. A roadside gift (with assorted cracks) as the source material makes preservation more difficult.

Here's how he was coloured when I found him. I would have liked to preserve the leather somehow too, but such tricks are beyond my means.

Now I am preserving the shell (one layer at a time sprayed on in the backyard...are you people outdoors? It's amazing out there today!) I need to decide what to do with it next. A lot of taxidermists hang them on the wall, but I won't be doing that, or maybe I will.

Other option. I have some groundhog skulls in my room from when I was a kid. I might use them, the shell and other bits I don't have yet to make some sort of awesome creature. If I can find the right arms and legs I hope to have the beast stand upon my desk as a warning.

Don't play God!