Bird skeleton in glass dome

I recently made a new piece of anatomical/curiosity art. This is a bird skeleton made entirely of silver, housed in a glass dome with a mahogany base. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. My work at university was based on skeletons, but I was working in steel. It's very different to work with - the joining especially. The steel skeletons were mostly spot welded, with some gas welding. When I left university and had to work without the glorious workshops, I realised I had to work out new ways of making things. The problem with making complex things out of silver is that unless you're very, very careful when you heat the metal, you risk re-melting the joins you've just done and undoing all your painstaking work. I think the number of skeletons I'd made while at university helped, though, because I had an idea of what order I had to do certain things in. Clearly all the time I've spent fiddling around with little bits of wire and scratching my head while looking at drawings has helped!

I think my next anatomical project is going to be a little more difficult, possibly based on a horse. Bird skeletons are my comfort zone, in a way. I started my skeleton making with them, and whenever I have to work out new ways of doing something, it's to them that I return. So I'm going to force myself out of my comfort zone and do something that may go horribly wrong - which is why I think my experiments are going to be in copper. It's heartbreaking melting something which you've spent hours on, but melting something out of a material which has a relatively high intrinsic value is just a little more galling. I'm looking forward to the challenge, though!