Sirius is a genuine blesbock skull, highlighted by a 5 point handblown glass star blazing on his forehead. I found this skull at an unexpectedly wonderful bead shop in downtown Iowa City, Iowa - Beadology. When traveling, I always have to search for local bead shops, because that is where I tend to find the most interesting treasures. This bead was compromised of dark red, white and blue swirls. The unusual color combination inspired me to create a skull using some of my favorite colored Czech glass seed beads, which would not "normally" be found on a skull. But really - how often do skulls "normally" have beads on them, right?! That's what I LOVE about my medium - it allows me to break out of all expectations for fine art.
Mounted on driftwood collected by my father from Buffalo Bison near Cody, Wyoming in the mid-1970s. The blesbok or blesbuck is a subspecies of the bontebok antelope endemic to South Africa, Eswatini and Namibia. It has a distinctive white face and forehead which inspired the name, because bles is the Afrikaans word for a blaze such as one might see on the forehead of a horse.