This Izboushka is made entirely of bones, cut and then wired together with brass. Most of her bones are from deer- ribs for one half the roof, a shoulder blade for the other half and the floor, walls from cut elk toes, which also form her thighs, while her calves are from deer legs, and her feet are deer feet. Her upper window is made from a cut deer vertebrae, and her fence is made from the bones of a chicken carefully harvested after dinner. Most of these bones are things I've found in the woods, gleaned from nature. The elk bones were found by a friend of mine and given to me. No animals were harmed for this piece, despite her grisly appearance.
Baba Yaga Ossuary is an award winning piece; she and I won the bone category at the 2022 Wunderkammer in NYC.
These Darling Izboushkas truly are brand new. They're so new that I'm still figuring out what they mean. I have always been interested in birds, and I have always been interested in folklore, and I have always moved around a lot, so Baba Yaga's Chicken-legged hut has always had something of an appeal. I spent a whole season a year or so ago just reading as many Baba Yaga stories as I could get my hands on (and the public library in my town is pretty good, so it was a lot of stories). I didn't DO anything with that, though, until March of this year, when everything changed so suddenly that I felt like I couldn't keep up. Maybe these little houses will help. I'm told they move very fast. Each one is based on some bird (though mostly not chickens) and are made in various materials. I started in copper, of course, because copper is what I am comfortable in, and while Baba Yaga's hut is a threat, it is also a comfortable house in the woods. From there I am expanding into materials I am less comfortable in, materials I have to stretch myself into, because Baba Yaga is not one to rest on her laurels, and she wouldn't want me to, either.
