Pickle wet specimen creatures for the Steampunk Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities

Pickle wet specimen creatures for the Steampunk Victorian Cabinet of Curiosities

(Alternative title: 'Get Wet & Pickled')
(Another alternative title: 'A wet specimen is for life, not just Halloween')



Genuine Museum preserved Wet Specimens

Every respectable gentleman (& some less respectable) of Victorian leisure & science would have had a virtual home museum of artefacts & objects in their private collection, often housed in the library or study.



Malplaquet House, London
image acquired from Pinterest

A Cabinet of Curiosities, or Wunderkammer of quirky, weird & natural (& unnatural) wonders. These were often after dinner conversation pieces for the gentlemen (& the more adventurous non-swooning ladies).

Now these collected objects could get pretty bizarre & genuinely quite creepy.  However, no respectable well read person of Victorian science or barking mad laboratory boffin would surely have been without their wet 'specimens'.  Boffins Bunker no exception & we had to create a few of our own for our cabinet of curiosities.




From Boffins Bunker's own 'Cabinet of Curiosities'
(i) Real Snakeskin Oil, (ii) Kraken Squid Cephalopod, (iii) Occult Divination Nutshells



 

Wet squid specimens nestled amongst other objects in
the Boffin Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities'

I have an inspiring image collection of Cabinet of Curiosity collections here on my Pinterest http://pinterest.com/boffinsbunker/cabinets-of-curiosities-wunderkammer/

but where does one get specimens?

Ah, well, that takes application & dedication, ferreting about and often looking at things in a slightly different perspective...like the luminous fishing bait moppet lure used in the above wet Kraken squid specimen.

"I collect.
What I cannot collect, I create. 
What I cannot create, I imagine.
What I cannot imagine...others will,.. in time!

A virtual collection of wet specimen images may be found here on Boffin Bunkers Pinterest board 'Get Wet & Pickled'

Cabinet of Curiosities Mycology Fungi Specimens from Cornwall

These are a few of my Victorian Museum style Mycology Specimens. I made these fun Fantasy Fungi for my 'Cabinet of Curiosities'. 

They are in keeping with my other interests of Steampunk & Occult, sitting happily beside other  bizarre items and artefacts in the collection.  The genuine C19th antique papier mache museum specimens of fungi & mushrooms are so very expensive.  A single Victorian antique example on eBay listed for over £100, so I made my own.

These fungi created in my Boffins Bunker using  wire framed & aluminium foil as armature, with a skin of polymer clay (One of my 1st ventures into using 'sculpey' TM).  Mounted on an ebonised (Black French Polish) wooden base.



'Cabinet of Curiosities' Victorian Museum style Mycology Fantasy Fungi
Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall

Below: A close up on two smaller specimens each being under approx. 4cm inc. base



'Cabinet of Curiosities' Small (4cm approx.) Victorian Museum style Mycology
Fantasy Fungi Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall

Some of my Steampunk insects & creepy crawly creations look quite at home sat on the larger fungi specimens.

For more images of my work & other items I've started a Pintrest Board which can be found here.