A Mermaid Skeleton

(Author's note: this is my writeup about my latest project, aimed at the SCA, which is the Society for Creative Anachronism. We study the arts and sciences of the Medieval period, and I may have a reputation for being an instigatrix that likes to push boundaries. With that in mind....)

I know what you're thinking: what the non-period cinnamon toast crunch is THIS?!?

Bear with me, at least till the resources.

I know that we study the arts and sciences of the Medieval period, but some techniques are a bit more blurry than firm dates would like you to admit.

Though I do my research, and know I may be pushing it. I ask odd questions: "Could this have been done in such and so period? Did they have the techniques? Humans would likely think of it, but could they put it into practice? What would that look like? Could it be a one-off, or could it have become popular or common?" Like when I spun up mammoth fur, for instance.

Outside of the scope of the SCA, I have always been fascinated with Fiji mermaids. I still have plans to create a real one, but until such time, Henri3lla will have to suffice. My sewn-together plushie (half fish stuffie, half monkey stuffie) hangs out at my desk or bedstand. I'm thinking of making a real half-mouse, half-fish, but I'm not going to go out and kill something just for my crafting. I chatted with two people who make ethical art with animal bones at Pennsylvania Renaissance faire last month, and that's when I got the idea for this piece.

Anatomical drawings were very well known; see Leonardo da Vinci for the most famous examples. Wax anatomy models were known throughout, from Egypt and Greece (votive offerings) to Italy, where it really took off into a complicated industry. Pottery models? All over the place, and if you know me, you know what my favorite ones are. Moving right along...

Could glass have been used for anatomical studies?

Do I know it's unlikely? Sure. But am I curious enough to try it anyway, knowing there are always rich people trying to one-up each other in the "lookie what I can display" department? See the German late period glass chain mail. One crazy person with a rich patron.

I'm just nutz enough to try it. A skeleton, I mean; I've already done the chain.

I'm absolutely sure someone thought of it, since the wax models became popular. Boxwood carvings of the danse macabre and memento mori show that 3D models were desired. But so far, no documentation or pieces of a glass skeleton have emerged.

But what about the equipment? Is it possible?

With a "Viking" bead kiln, no. With a Roman kiln, yes. With a Chinese Warring States kiln, possibly, but they would have gone with porcelain instead (and did, later, with medical models), or ivory. With a Victorian alcohol lamp, most definitely. With Venetian lamps, definitely. I've played with most of these setups, and the ones I haven't, I know the techniques and temperatures well enough to make accurate guesses.

So I waited till I had a tank with little MAPP left in it on a modern lampwork setup, and made beads. It was quite difficult, getting things proportional and on tiny diameter rods. I had quite a boneyard when I was finished with the session, and had enough multiple ribs, vertebrae, and radii to make two more skeletons. It took a while to get into the hang of it, and I had to change tanks when I ran out of gas making a knobbed vertebra - I should have been making a humerus, I was not amused. Proportions on the fly are difficult! Skull, tail fins, and paddle hands were a bit easier (and bigger, thinking fin shapes).

I then assembled the spinal column on fine copper, triple twisted with a drop spindle. It took five tries to get the right bones into the S curve. I then glued the fin onto the "tail," and let it set. Next was the head, with a bit of a wiggly gap. Next was the arm wire, because the arm bones aren't beads, they were made on top of the mandrel and just have a concave space where they can be glued, like some real bones.

After those set, I bent the arm wires a bit, then added the paddle fin-hands to the ends. I made a hanger out of floral wire, and a cloche is on the way for further protection.

I love it! I'm not sure I proved anything other than it was tricky, but ultimately a fun project. Yes, of course I have ideas for fairy and dragon skeletons, why do you ask?

Could it have been done in late period? Definitely. Was it? Maybe. Cabinets of curiosities started in 1599, and taxidermy and displayed skeletons and other mountings show up in the woodcuts and paintings. So yes, it is quite possible, but until the actual documentation surfaces, we will just have to live with plausible speculation.

My next project, already in the works, is an Egyptian glass bead necklace, with my repro fishie front and center!

Sources:

Mounted Skeletons, but dinosaur specific, so quite out of period

https://extinctmonsters.net/2012/05/05/a-brief-history-of-mounted-dinosaur-skeletons/

Period Mermaid Skeleton

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-13th-century-mermaid-bones-came-be-displayed-japanese-temple-180962209/

Wax Models, and miniatures thereof

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2815944/

Votive Offerings

https://museumcrush.org/anatomical-votive-offerings-of-the-greco-roman-world/

https://thevotivesproject.org/2016/11/13/votive-visions-of-the-body/

Boxwood Memento Mori

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29140/lot/12/carved-boxwood-memento-mori-figure-17th18th-century-in-the-manner-of-hans-leinberger-german-active-1511-1530/

Images and Information on Alcohol Lampworking Lamps

http://big-bead-little-bead.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-lampwork-glass-beads-what-is.html

http://www.theglassmuseum.com/lampwork.html

Cabinet of Curiosities - for images in period

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities