Bone salvaging with
Osteal Jewelry

Osteal Jewelry is run by horticulturist and jewelry designer Amanda Joe Langston in Seattle. It is animal bone jewelry, but all materials are sourced and crafted cruelty free. Crafting animal bones and salvage into jewelry is popular with some folk these days, so I thought I’d go through all the questions folks send Amanda regarding the crafting process. I hope this interview will be helpful to other folks who are messing around with bone scavenging and jewelry making, as well as interested in one of a kind nifty designs from Osteal Jewelry.

Will you give the readers of CVLT Nation an introduction to Osteal Jewelry?

Osteal is a line of cruelty free bone, hair, teeth and occasionally fur jewelry (with some wood and brass thrown in, for good measure). I wanted to use natural items, while not creating more garbage for the world… Plus I wanted a way to pay tribute to the wild bits of life. All items are found/scavenged – nothing comes from factory farms, fur farms, trapping or trophy hunting. I’ve been vegetarian for over ten years and having ethically sourced materials is extremely important to me, and i hope to my customers.

Where do you find all the bones and salvage for your jewellery?

I am always looking, always. The woods rivers, beaches, rural roads, train tracks, abandoned houses/barns – even my own yard. I also have friends and family that grab anything they see for me, and a few trusted scavengers i buy found bones from. Its just a matter of always looking, you’ll start to develop an eye for it.

I’ve learned to spot a rib cage, in a ditch, on the side of the road at 70 miles an hour…seriously, you develop an eye for dead stuff.

How much time do you spend scavenging to get so many?

I try go get out of the city for hiking/bone collecting or general adventuring at least once a week, usually on the weekends. So at least one day a week is dedicated to searching, scavenging and foraging.

Truly, though, I am always on the look-out.

Do you bury found dead animals/roadkill and then dig them up later after they’ve decomposed?

I do! its the easiest way. Burial works best on small mammals and can take several months, especially if they are still very fleshy. Larger animals, like deer, I sometimes put at the bottom of our outdoor compost bin, that goes quite a bit faster.

For the most part, the things I find are nowhere near fresh, which is great. Most things I find are either street jerky or a big, writhing, maggoty pile of goo. All you need to do at that point is macerate them for a week or so, scrub off the meaty bits and then give them a peroxide bath.

What’s the process of making them into jewelry? What concentration of peroxide do you use to bleach your bones? What type of drill do use on bones? What kind of wire do you use?

The process: Drink coffee, put on music/movie, work till my hands are sore. Repeat. I love laying out all the bits and pieces I have, rearranging them, and just seeing what works. I try to start with a rough idea, or a theme, but I rarely have designs planned out beforehand.

For bleaching the bones: I use regular, drug-store, hydrogen peroxide.

I currently have a small Dremmel hand drill which I use for all the drilling, cutting and sanding. They offer a wide range of bit and chuck sizes – it basically does everything you could want.

The wire depends on the item, the amount of contact with skin and the type of chain I’ll be using. I currently have galvanized steel wire, antiqued pure brass wire, sterling silver and your basic tarnish resistant craft-store wire in brass and silver tones. The more variety and choices I have, the more I can create.

You are required to have a permit to sell bone jewelry internationally. Have you ever come into bother in posting any to someone?

Yes, permits are required – so unfortunately many of my items cannot be shipped outside of the U.S. Even with permits some items are illegal to ship internationally or even state to state within the U.S. – such as most native bird feathers.

I haven’t run into any troubles via the post yet, not regarding the contents anyhow.

What do you think of ‘How can you wear bone jewelry if you are a vegan/vegetarian? Opinions on taxidermy?

I’ve never been asked the ‘how can you?’ question in real life. I assume because anyone who spends any time talking to me has probably gotten an earful about how animals and nature should be protected and respected.

I find lots of bones while hiking and foraging so I’m able to tell people what trail, mountain or region I was in when I found the bones. I think that helps people understand that I see bones as treasures.

I’m all for taxidermy – if you use roadkill, natural deaths or the occasional ‘look what the cat brought me.’ However, most taxidermy revolves around sport/trophy hunting and I find hunting as a sport disgusting.

When I started teaching myself taxidermy an old housemate of mine called me “the most brutal vegetarian” she’d ever known. She ate meat and the idea of carving up a rotting body was too much for her. Lucky for me I’ve got a strong stomach, a huge amount of respect for science and a healthy acceptance of death.

You’re involved in a forest restoration project, could you tell us more?

I went to school to get an AA degree in Horticulture with a focus on Ecological Restoration, which basically involves protecting the plants, wildlife and habitat native to any location. This includes lots of removal of invasive plant species as well as stabilizing soils and replanting with natives.

I am privileged to live in a city that has year round, on-going restoration projects. I often volunteer at local clean-ups which are hosted by the Green Seattle Partnership and Nature Consortium. Anyone can volunteer and it’s a beautiful experience.

I also help run a landscaping business. We are pesticide free, we use salvaged and native plants, organic fertilizers and homemade compost tea. We encourage low water drip irrigation, permeable hardscapes and lots of habitat plantings.

Any last words? What’s the soundtrack to making jewellery from bones?

Everyone should go outside more, the world is full of natural treasures! Live with less, reuse more and don’t litter.

The soundtrack: His Hero is Gone, Kylesa, Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, Crisis, Black Sabbath, Blackbird Raum, Bolt Thrower, Black Cobra, Venom, Rudimentary Peni, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jolee Holland, Merle Haggard, Obiat, Year of no Light, Contropotere, Stevie Nicks, Aerosmith, Dandelion Junk Queens, The Sword – lots of The Sword lately!

I always watch movies when I’m scrubbing/cleaning bones, no idea why. Some of my most recent include: the Indiana Jones trilogy, Ginger Snaps, The Dark Crystal, The Rivers Edge, Princess Mononoke, The Dark Half, Young Frankenstein…I know, I’m a dork.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Osteal