# specimen for my Cabinet of Curiosities



## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

So... I am working on a Cabinet of Curiosities, but it is taking FOREVER and a day, so in the meantime I am just collecting/making specimens to go inside. This started as a project for all the items we find on our travels, but it has taken on a life of its own. :googly:

This is the specimen tag for one particular item. Please forgive me if it is totally illegible or otherwise maimed in the posting process- this is my first time to post a photo on the forum. The tag format itself was appropriated from Dave Lowe Design.com. It was listed a while back as a sort of gift to his readers, and turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. Plus, it is a nice way to incorporate the work of someone I admire into my own work without walking all over it.

If the tag photo posts properly, then I will post the item itself...


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## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

*Specimen 00089, Teeth of a Banshee*

Awesome! That worked!

The specimen label was glued to a cereal box for heft, rubbed with burned cork for the dirty look which caught interesting striations in the glue texture underneath, and burned at the edges.

The teeth are actually a plaster dental model of my teeth that I conned my dentist into giving me, but you can find tutorials for making your own. I just colored the plaster using whatever was laying around- mostly nail polish since the brush sizes were just perfect for getting into crevices and changing the tooth color. I considered filing them down for effect, but once they had some color I liked the subtle way they turned out. Because the coloration is pretty subtle, I backdated the specimen collection so the fading would seem due to time.

Hope you like!


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## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

*better photo*

sorry. that one was terrible. hope this is better.


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## nightrideproductions (Oct 25, 2007)

Very cool! I love Dave's blog btw.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Very nice! I love this idea - just can't work it into my yard (yet...)


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## fick209 (Aug 31, 2009)

ohh, very nice!


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## Dark Angel 27 (Sep 11, 2008)

i love it! that tag is awesome too!


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## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

Thanks, all! Dave's blog is awesome. It always gets me in the creative mood.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Okay, I love this idea so much that I will tread the uneasy ground of giving a suggestion. If you squint your eyes, and make everything a bit blurry, you will see that the teeth & gums kinda become one blur of same coloration & texture.My suggestion would be to try to make the teeth "pop" a bit from the gums with a bit of different colors and/or shading so your eye is a bit more interested in looking at the teeth.. I think it's funny that you have you OWN TEETH on display! How smart is THAT to wangle the impression from your dentist!!?? Very cool. 

Hmm..maybe my doc has that mold from my last tooth cap....

And I love Dave's stuff, too!


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Very nice work, I too am making up specimen stuff for my witch set up.


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## pensivepumpkin (Mar 27, 2011)

debbie5- i totally agree, so no worries! irl the teeth have more of a yellow cast than the gums because of some "french tip" nail polish i coated on them, but it doesn't seem to show up in the picture.

what i keep wondering is if i should try some "dead" looking colors on the lighter spaces of the gums... maybe some greens or blues? what do you think? the darkest red seemed like overkill at first, so i had to live with that for a while. i think maybe the plaster was just SO INCREDIBLY WHITE that my eye had to adjust.

kprimm- cool! can't wait to see them!


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