Work in Progress: Papier-Mâché Whale Vertebra Part One

      Before leaving Northern California for good in September I made one last trek out to my favorite beachcombing spot near Point Reyes National Seashore to collect a few more buoys.  While rambling along the rocky coast I nearly fainted when I made one whopper of a discovery: a massive, decaying whale carcass. I had always hoped to run across a lone whale vertebra washed up on the shore and here was not just one, but indeed an entire whale's worth!

      Now, it isn't legal for an individual to possess any part of a whale, and the vertebra pictured below was way too heavy, oily, and stinky to drag back up the cliff with me anyway, so I was satisfied to take a few pictures of my find and call it a day.

      Back home, while editing the photos, I couldn't shake the desire to add that whale vertebra to my nautical collections, and I determined that I would try my best to duplicate my own (legal and less smelly!) version in papier-mâché! I guess I had papier-mâché on the brain, having recently watched a video about how one of my favorite artists, Mark Dion, and his team of sculptors recreated in papier-mâché all of the gear used in a little-known 1908 expedition to the Far East.

     Working from my photographs and using the buoys pictured above for scale (I did take those and that wicked-looking gaff hook home with me!) I drew out a full-scale template for all of the elements that I would need to build a sturdy interior structure upon which to layer the mâché. Fortunately, at the time I was working at the Oakland Museum, and was permitted to use the woodshop and some discarded wood to create parts that I would be able to take home and assemble when I was ready to start the project!

     I am now happily relocated (once again!) to Los Angeles, working for a super-creative, awe-inspiring company, and settling into my new life here; it seems the time is right for getting to work on that whale vertebra! I'm so glad I took the time to figure out all of the mechanics of the interior structure while I had access to a woodshop; all of the elements screwed together just as I had envisioned, and before long I had a rock-solid "skeleton" for my new papier-mâché project! 

     The next step will be to cover most of the structure with wire mesh to further fill out and refine the shape of the vertebra and provide a good, textured surface onto which the mâché may be applied. 

      I will post an update as soon as I start the process of applying the papier-mâché!

Trash or Treasure? Please Help!

WOW! It's been ages, right? I mean really... it's just been rather too long! I've been busy like you wouldn't believe since relocating to the West Coast, and will at some point soon compose a post aimed at keeping my faithful readers abreast of all of the current projects brewing at FinderMaker Manor. Until then, however, I have just one question for each and every one of you: What is this thing???








Frankly, I'm stumped. First things first, though...

This weekend I felt compelled to embark on a spur of the moment drive up the coast to one of our usual beachcombing spots; it is remote, and requires a near life-threatening scramble down a cliff face to access, so it is rare to see another soul and common to find weird stuff washed up.

We survived the cliff-face scramble down to the water and commenced to ramble along the rocky coast some distance until the geography presented an insurmountably rocky outcropping, which I, ever eager to discover more curious objects, determined that I would simply have to surmount. Surrendering my preference for keeping dry, I took a few minutes to study the swell and retreat of the waves and, in a moment of relative calm, picked my way out around boulders submerged waist-deep in cold water and made my way back in towards a tiny secluded beach on the far side of the outcropping. I quickly scanned the area for any odd detritus (looking specifically for buoys on this trip but always on the alert for anything interesting at all) and honed in rather quickly on what looked like a rosy, metallic rib poking up among a cluster of surf-lapped rocks; I made my way over and immediately dubbed the thing "Jonah's Rib" and determined it worthy of closer inspection back in the company of my cohort.

It is copper; that much was easy enough to surmise, but beyond that I was unable to determine its age or any concrete purpose. What intrigued me most were the closed ends. Please humor me here and examine each end closely; you'll see just as I did that they appear to have been folded closed purposefully. What is being held inside by those folds? A treasure map? Drugs? Lead weights? Sand? Nothing?





The thing has some nice green patina on it and may have been fully covered in that green patina at one point; I've started to think that as it washed close to the shore, it may have rolled around on the rocks and sand for some time, rubbing away much of the patina and exposing the bright copper beneath.



When I first discovered it, the exposed copper was bright and rosy colored like a brand-new penny; over the past few days, however, the copper has dulled and darkened considerably. It isn't particularly heavy, but then it doesn't feel empty either. It doesn't rattle when shaken or bend easily. Oh yes, and it is 13.5" long x 5/8" wide and ranges from 3/8" to 1/2" on the side depending on where ones measures (some parts are more squished than others).

Questions foremost in my mind:
1) How long must copper be submerged in salt water to acquire that crusty green patina?
2) When was copper tubing invented? Although the thing is sort of a flattened, beat up tube-shape, it is definitely tubular, which is to say that it was formed as a tube from the get-go and not as a sheet of copper that was rolled and soldered, as there is no seam running along the length. Figuring out when copper was first extruded as tubing may help me determine the age of the thing.
3) What, if anything, is inside?
4) Can any of my readers help me figure out what this thing is? Is it trash or treasure?

I'm going to give myself a few weeks to do more research, and then I will perform as delicate a surgery as I am able to open up the object and see if there is something concealed within. I will post the results of my findings right here on FinderMaker, so please check back in the next few weeks and if you have any thoughts on what the thing might be, please send me a message; I need your help!