This is the fourth or fifth iteration of the very first dead mouse, and at this point only one of the tails is left of the original:

I'm embarrassed to admit how long this project has been sitting on my stringing desk...

The wizard has taken up welding, which is great—awesome custom tables for pin polishers, plants, etc for me!—but we haven't finished revamping the studio^[1] so I can work safely without a welding helmet on (which would make it a bit tricky to string;) so I chose short projects such as restringing this mouse so we could alternate: while he was welding, I was down in the basement doing photography, and while he was in basement grinding away, I was upstairs stringing.

one plus 5T, 26apr22:12:06pm f/1.7, 1/100s, ISO 500. floral dead mouse repair completed with new tail. Note those awesome ridged irid green bugles in lower middle part of the shot:)

The pink abstract just below the vessel is just a touch larger than I would normally choose, but I wanted it because Fran made it for me:) I used some “luscious” beads in the second tail—fuchsia cubes, for example. This is after a very special mouse.

Dead Mouse with yellow and pink floral vessel. Focal 22x 6mm long, overall length 260mm (10.5") Sony ILCE-7c and sony 90mm macro; godox flash 600, 1/2 power; f/4.5 ev 0 1/160s ISO 50; strung and photographed 26apr22

The repair took about an hour to do, and that with sorting out some of the beads ahead of time. Well, stringing is supposed to be a meditative practise, after all.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.