Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Course Three: Practice 121

associations as well as their mineral qualities, and note

these on the identifying cards. With nearly 2,000 dif-

ferent minerals on Earth, you can keep busy collect-

ing samples for a long time! On the other hand, you

might want to specialize, and just collect specific kinds

of crystals.

Skulls: My favorite personal collection consists of

dozens of different kinds of skulls of animals and birds

that I have cleaned and prepared from road-kills since

I was a boy. I find animal skulls to be absolutely fas-

cinating, each with their unique architecture, denti-

tion, and arrangements for the sense organs. When I

find a fresh unsquashed road-kill, I carefully cut off

the head; then I take it home and plop it into a pot of

boiling water. Of course, I have to keep refilling the

water, but after a few hours, all the flesh falls away

from the bones, and I can carefully separate it out

after a few rinses in a bowl of clear water.

Be especially careful of the front teeth, as these

will easily fall out and get lost once the flesh of the

gums is gone. Good tools for cleaning skulls are den-

tists’ probes (ask your dentist for used ones he would

otherwise throw away), clay-working tools (from a

crafts store), and an old toothbrush. I go over the teeth

and skull joints carefully with white glue (wiping it

down with a damp sponge), and then I glue the two

halves of the jaws together (holding them with rub-

ber bands). The final cleaned skull is a very beautiful

thing.

Insects and Butterflies: When I was a boy at

summer camp, my mentor, Captain Bennings, showed

me how to make a net and collecting jar for butter-

flies, moths, and other interesting insects. I made dis-

play cases of shallow boxes with glass panes and de-

veloped quite a collection. The “Holy Grail” of but-

terfly collectors, however, is the elusive and ethereal

Luna Moth, which is an unearthly pale green color

like the luciferin in lightsticks. Finally, after many

years of searching, I caught one. I killed it in the cya-

nide jar and proudly mounted it in my display case.

And so I was absolutely devastated when its lumines-

cent hue soon faded to a sickly straw-color. The Luna

Moth, I learned, was a creature of Faerie, not meant

to be killed and put on display for mortal eyes. And

after that I never collected another butterfly.

Fossils: Fossils are fun to collect, especially if you

happen to live in some area where there are a lot of

them. When I lived in the Midwest, I could often find

fossils of trilobites and brachiopods along riverbanks.

Egg cartons were perfect ways to display these. The

Golden Nature Guide to Fossils is very helpful, with

many specimens illustrated.

Indian Artifacts: There are no fossils in

NorCalifia, where I live now, as these lands only

formed fairly recently in geological time. But the ranch

I lived on during many years was once a major camp-

ing area for the Pomo Indians, and many arrowheads,

flints, scrapers, and other artifacts would turn up in

the freshly turned earth of our gardens after rains. I

never collected these, but other ranchers did, and this

got them involved in native archeology and working

with local tribes.

Curiosities: Really unusual “one of a kind” things

are called curiosities. In this category, I have things

like a meteorite tektite from the impact that killed the

dinosaurs; a very realistic shrunken head made of

goatskin; a human skull (from my days in medical

school); and various little souvenirs and items of lo-

cal handicraft I’ve picked up on my travels around

the world.

Dioramas

Dioramas are little model scenes with miniature

figures, landscaping, and painted backgrounds. I was

always fascinated by these in museums when I was a

lad, and so I made a number of my own. All you re-

ally need is a sturdy wooden box, which you lay on

its side with the open top in front. Try and find a match-

ing picture frame you can attach to the open front (junk

stores and flea markets are great places to find such

frames). You should install a little Christmas tree light

in one of the upper front corners behind the frame to

provide illumination. A background picture can be

made from any painting or photo enlarged at a copy

3. Practice.p65 121 1/14/2004, 4:20 PM