Make Your Own Ruysch Embalming Jars

           

FREDERIK RUYSCH

1638-1731

Who is this guy...apothecary, botanist, anatomist

Claim to fame...master of anatomical preparations (embalming fluids) which preserved tissue to such a high degree as to make the subject appear as though "still alive".

Have you ever seen an embalming jar or diorama constructed by Frederik Ruysch?

Let me introduce you to some of his fascinating work...

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN REVIEW has more pictures of Ruysch's work.

If you follow my blog you know that I love things in jars.

 I just had to have MY OWN set of Ruysch jars!

 I gathered a few jars and supplies together and got started and this is the end result...

My jars are "sans embalming fluid" and not quite as macabre as Ruysch's (it's tough to find dead things under four feet of snow...kidding...maybe). Even without real life specimens these faux embalming jars were so much fun to assemble, I'm happy with the results.

Start with a jar (must have lid) of your own choosing, fit the jar with a Styrofoam cone.

This is a Mason jar used for canning, I glued the metal lid to the screw ring with hot glue.

  Cover the foam with moss and get decorating! Here are a few of the things I used:

Turtles found in children's toy department

Turtle eggs made by covering a plastic golf ball with papier mache, painting white

Sand and seashells purchased at Walmart

Branches, grasses, leaves, seed pods gathered from garden, floral shops, etc

Bird, feathers, nest and eggs from Gales Wholesale here in Regina

Fish graphics found in old sticker book

Butterflies public domain graphics laser printed onto vellum and glued to jar, vellum is transparent the butterfly with look as though it has a front and back, helps to create the illusion of a real butterfly.

Crickets found at the bottom of my "box of stuff"

Hanging seed pods made from Sculpey and painted with acrylics

*to make things hang inside the jar, screw a small hook to the underside of the lid and hang the 

item using invisible thread

Ribbon and string around outside of jar found in my burgeoning ribbon box

CREATE THE TOPPER TO REFLECT THE HABITAT OF THE CREATURE IN THE JAR

                                                

 

Wait till Halloween...think I'll put a set of creepy jars together...should have found some body parts by then!