Specimen Preparation: Crow Skull 🐦‍⬛

This project marked my first experience preparing and cleaning an animal skull for my collection. The skull was gifted to me by my ex-girlfriend after being found in the fields near Cheltenham Racecourse. It later became a significant learning experience in skull preservation, even though I eventually sold this specimen after my current partner gifted me a crow skull with a complete jaw for our anniversary in 2024.

🧰 Materials and Equipment:

• 💀 Crow skull specimen (no jaw)

• 🫙 Glass jar with cork stopper

• 🧼 Soap and water cleaning solutions

• 🪥 Brushes and cleaning tools

• 🧻 Paper towels (for drying after rinsing)

• ⏳ Drying time: overnight for best results after each cleaning process

⚙️ Preparation Process:

Step One: Degreasing and Sterilisation

• 🫧 Initial Soaking – Specimen soaked overnight in hot water with soap to remove oils and begin sterilisation

• 🪥 Primary Scrubbing – Toothbrush used to remove debris, residue, and surface contaminants

Step Two: Whitening Process

• 🤍 Chemical Whitening – Skull soaked overnight in a 70% alcohol-water solution to brighten bone and remove remaining impurities

Common Crow Skull - Fields near Cheltenham Racecourse - 10/06/2022

Key Skills Developed:

• 🖼️ Curatorial and Display Skills – First-hand experience handling and cleaning skeletal material, applied aesthetic and scientific consideration in specimen preparation.

• 🫙 Preservation and Collections Management – Practised degreasing and sterilisation techniques as well as chemical whitening methods to improve long-term stability. While gaining awareness of correct handling and safety practices.

• 🏛️ Museum-Related Skills – Aligned methods with basic conservation approaches used in collections care and strengthened understanding of skeletal remains as teaching and display objects.

• 🧩 Problem-Solving – Improvised processes using available cleaning solutions and tools and refined judgement when balancing preservation with presentation.

• 🎨 Transferable Skills – Patience and precision in multi-stage cleaning process and attention to fine detail during scrubbing and whitening.

This crow skull project became a cornerstone of my early specimen preparation practice, combining technical cleaning with curatorial awareness. It allowed me to experiment with processes that informed later work in bone and insect curation, while highlighting my adaptability in managing preservation tasks within personal collections.

💀 See more on my Instagram: @BonesByShannon 🪲

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