Crochet Animal Skeletons by Caitlin T. McCormack

Philadelphia based artist Caitlin T. McCormack creates these eerie looking crochet animal skeletons using cotton string and glue.



"The act of stiffening intricately crocheted cotton string with glue produces material that is structurally similar to delicate bone tissue. The string implemented in this process can be viewed as the basic cellular unit of fabrication, and by utilizing media and practices inherited from my deceased relatives, I aim to generate emblems of my diminishing bloodline, embodied by each organism's skeletal remains."



"For a while the objects had sort of a totemic property and I wanted them to rematerialize my dead relatives."



"I’ve always been fascinated by entropy, and things disintegrating and then building back up into other forms. By using a material that wasn’t necessarily bio-matter inherited from a dead relative, I could reconstitute it in some other shape and, in some way, have them for a little bit longer."



McCormack work will be featured within Opus Hypnagogia: Sacred Spaces of the Visionary and Vernacular at The Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, New York which runs through October 15th.











Check her website: http://caitlintmccormack.com/

Neon Sculptures by Eric Franklin

Portland-based sculptor Eric Franklin constructs stunning these light structures that are fully hollow and filled with ionized neon, krypton, and mercury, causing them to glow similar to a neon light.



"The human body is mostly liquid, and glass is really just a liquid that happens to be frozen at room temperature. Glass is an amazing membrane that can be inflated, stretched and compressed. It can be broken and repaired. In some instances, glass has incredible strength and durability, and in others extreme fragility and vulnerability. Imagery of skulls and skeletons carry a certain post-mortem weight along with them, but they come from a much more visceral and optimistic place than that. For me, they are much more about being alive than dead. These pieces describe and define the dynamics and interconnection of everything that makes us human: from our bones to our psyche."



"Every glass seal has to be perfect, and this piece contains hundreds. Everywhere one tube joins another, or a tube terminates, glass tubes were sealed together. They have to be perfect in order to preserve the luminosity of the krypton. If one rogue molecule gets inside the void of the glass tubing it can eventually contaminate the gas and it will no longer glow."



"Each glass piece has a metal wire sealed through the glass wall, usually in an inconspicuous location. Once a sculpture is filled with gas, the color will remain constant. There are subtle color changes that happen when you get close, or touch the surface of the glass, but they will return to their original state once you move away. In order to drastically change the color, the glass would have to be cracked open and refilled with another gas."



"There are times when the holes in the seals are so small that you cannot actually see them with your eyes without the help of a leak detector. Once the glass pieces are ready to get filled with gas, I pull a high vacuum while the glass is hot in order to evacuate any dust or water vapor from the interior surface until there are literally no molecules inside the void of the glass. Then the krypton can be introduced and the glass sealed off. It’s an extremely tedious process, one I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with."



The glass skeleton titled 'Embodiment', took over 1,000 hours over a two year period to complete and built from 10 separate units of glass formed from borosilicate glass tubing.



"I spend about 1000 hours on each piece. I would say that the teeth are my biggest challenge. I have to simultaneously heat the jaw and the skull at a slow enough rate to crack the glass teeth. Also, in order to get the pieces to glow they have to be filled with a noble gas or a combination of noble gases. The noble gases will only glow if they are in an extremely pure state so the glass must be perfectly sealed. I must be vigilant about leaks, but it’s always exciting to see the light rush into the piece like a liquid and then slowly stabilize."



"Borosilicate glass has a much lower coefficient of expansion than the glass used to make vases and such. Most people know borosilicate glass as Pyrex, which is a brand name. Essentially it does not expand as much when it gets hot as other types of glass. It requires much more heat to work than other types of glass, and the working time (the amount of time it stays hot enough to manipulate) is much shorter. It can certainly crack if it gets too hot too fast, so it has to be heated and cooled slowly. The glass thickness has to be pretty consistent as well to avoid cracking. Borosilicate is definitely the best choice for the work I do, but a terrible choice for other projects."





Check his website: http://ericfranklin.com/

Source: installationmag

X-Rays Origami Animals by Takayuki Hori

Japanese student Takayuki Hori has created this amazing series entitled ‘Oritsunagumono’ (which means ‘things folded and connected’), a collection of origami works designed to highlight the environmental threat of pollution to species living on Japan's coastal waterways.



Images of skeletons of eight endangered species are printed onto translucent sheets of paper and later folded into their origami shapes.



Hori showcases garbage in their insides using X-ray-like detail. If you look closely, you can see trash within the stomachs and ribcages.



The Oritsunagumono has won in 2010 first prize at Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Competition.

Skull Sculptures

Check these collection of skulls made of unique materials..

3D Printed Skull

Chicago-based artist Joshua Harker (previously here) created this 3D printed sculpture entitled 'Crania Anatomia Filigre' that became the #1 most funded Sculpture project in Kickstarter history and an icon of the 3D printed medium.







Check his website: www.joshharker.com

Cassette Tape Skull

Atlanta-based artist Brian Dettmer sculpts human and animal skulls and skeletons out of melted cassette tapes. No glue, fixatives, or any material other than old tapes form the sculpture.



In some of the sculptures he also used the magnetic tape from the cassettes to form feathers and antlers.



“The age of information in physical form is waning. As intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether. Newer media swiftly flips forms, unrestricted by the weight of material and the responsibility of history. In the tangible world we are left with a frozen material but in the intangible world we may be left with nothing. History is lost as formats change from physical stability to digital distress.”









Check his website: http://briandettmer.com/

Kitchen Utensils Skull

Indian sculptor and installation artist Subodh Gupta created this giant skull out of recycled stainless steel cooking utensils, called 'Very Hungry God'.



The utensils and the skull are representative of India, where the poor, the middle class and the rich all have pots and pans in their homes, but where some will starve because they have no food to cook.



"I have worked with stainless steel for many years, and like to use it because in India more than 70% of the population use stainless steel for breakfast lunch and dinner. And, I am fond of cooking, and most of my time I also spend in the kitchen. It is also shiny. And when 90% of the population use this for food - there is some irony to the shininess of the object, and its emptiness - because some of the plates go without food too. Many layers come together to make my story."

Techno Skull

British artist Richard Symons made the life sized 'Techno Skull' from cast resin.



Check his website: richardsymonsart.deviantart.com and etsy

Pill-encrusted Skull

Mark Kilner created this plastic skull covered in 630 tablets of paracetamol (aka acetaminophen), titled 'Numbskull'.



Skull Armchair

French designer Harold Sangouard, aka Harow, created this onyx Skull Armchair, all velvety on one side and a ridged, geometric skull on the other.



Skull Armchair is available in black and gold color and can be purchased through his website where the price is available upon request.



Check his website: http://www.harow.fr/

Giant Snake Skeleton Sculptures by Huang Yong Ping

Chinese-French contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping created these giant snake skeleton sculptures made of aluminum and stainless steel.



This sculptures is 174-foot (53 meter) aluminum and stainless steel snake skeleton titled 'Ressort'.



The metal sculpture was commissioned for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA.



Snake is generally considered a good omen in Chinese culture.



In 2012, he created 'Serpent d’océan', a 425 feet (130 meters) aluminum sea serpent skeleton situated off the shore of the Loire River as a permanent work for the final Estuaire contemporary art exhibition.







Huang Yong Ping also create this 'Tower Snake', a spiral ramp of bamboo taking the form of a coiled snake skeleton.



The installation is made to be walked on.