I'm making a handful of these little ladies; the mounted ones you are getting the exact one in the photo (no two mounts will be the same) but the unmounted ones are similar enough that I'm not taking portraits of each one individually. You will receive a spider very much like the one pictured. Because these are sometimes in stock and sometimes made to order, please allow a couple extra days for shipping.
The cameo tarantula is the bigger cousin of my cameo spiders; these cameos are cast bakelite(?) or some other early plastic, and are not handcarved! Which is probably part of why they are SO LARGE. I may not have realized the scale when I agreed to buy these from a friend who was cleaning out the studio of an aged jeweler, but I'm pleased as punch now that I realize what I've got. Also because they are some form of plastic, I was able to carve and shape the spider's waist right into them, making a much more spidery spider than the tiny cameo spiders. I've cut her body out of steel, for several reasons; colour match, strength, and, honestly, at her scale, also cost. Because she is so much BIGGER than her little cousins, I've also given her a lot more detail; the mouthparts are drawn directly from a photo of an agreeable tarantula, and I did my best to get the legs all the right proportions.
These are art objects. They are not toys, they are not jewelry. They are quite delicate and very pointy. because of her size, the Cameo Tarantula can get away with not being mounted, but only if you put her in a very safe place! I still recommend mounting. I have set this up an an option because plenty of folks are going to have some sort of object ready and waiting to mount a spider on, and you may prefer your own object. Maybe it's a teacup from your granny that you never use because you're too afraid of breaking it, or a bouquet of dried flowers preserved to remind you of a beautiful day, or you want to put it in the shadowbox with a pinned butterfly, or, more likely, something I would never think of. You will want to select something solid that will not be moved often; these are certainly more durable than a pinned insect, but not by a whole lot. I recommend e6000 as a bonding agent, though this will depend on what you are gluing to.
