Bony jewellery

Although it sounds morbid it was while participating in an autopsy that Kirstin Bunyard developed a keen interest to be a fashion designer. You might wonder how an autopsy inspire someone to go into fashion business. Kirstin Bunyard of Austin, Texas has shown the world how it can be done. She has successfully managed to blend her two great passions - fashion and dissection - into a macabre yet intriguing art-form. Kirstin is creating high-end, elegant jewellery [rings, bracelets and necklaces] using natural bones - primarily vertebrae and skulls.

In 2009, she started her own label called “Ossuaria Jewelry”, through which she sells her handmade accessories. She personally selects the bones for each piece and they are harvested, cleaned and fashioned by hand to create bold and dramatic adornments for people with a bit of an eccentric streak. With a background in criminology, she attended several autopsies and embalming and also worked as an autopsy assistant for a short time. Kirstin find her material mainly from road kill, farms and ranches and also other sources such as pet shops. She strips the skin and internal organs from the creature, then slowly macerates the remains in water to deflesh the bones.

Then she cleans each bone with a brush and finally soaks them in light peroxide to both sterilise and whiten the bones. In the case of snake vertebrae, each piece is put back into the order it was while inside the body. Kirstin said that she generally starts with a blank mind, spreads out a bunch of bones on her workspace and the piece just creates itself. Most necklaces take about 30 hours to make as she has to clean them, drill holes to connect them with wire. Recently she’s been making rosaries with rooster skulls and also used chicken toes to make a necklace that looks like a giant hand.” It is a super creepy look and I love it,” she says, “I don’t want to sell it.”

“I know how ridiculous it is,” she says of her work. “I sound a bit 'serial killerish' but I promise I am not. I’m a really nice person.” If you’re ready to adorn yourself with animal remains you can visit Kirstin’s site “Ossuaria Jewelry” and check out her collection.

A cow behaves like a dog

Milkshake, that’s her name. She is a cow but she thinks she is a dog and behaves like a dog. All her best friends are dogs and as she is closely attached to her canine friends she has developed a confused mind. As other cows are not her friends, she refuses to graze with them. She wants her food to be brought to her in a bowl, just like her dog friends. Beth DiCaprio of the Grace Foundation, who rescued Milkshake from an abusive animal hoarder, said: “I think a lot of people think it’s like a trick. She hung out with the dogs, so I think that’s what she assumed - that’s what she is, more than a cow.

She doesn’t really know. She was never around another cow.”

Beth even tried getting a cow friend for her, at the El Dorado Hills ranch in California, but Milkshake still feels comfortable with the pack. She follows Beth and her mutt Riley all over the ranch.

“She follows me around all day long, just like my dogs - she comes and watches me tend to all the other animals.

She’s even followed me into the bathroom before, although she was a little scared of her own reflection.”

Milkshake has tried to get into the back-seat of Beth’s car and has no problems hanging out in her house. Her eating habits are strange as well. “Milkshake is still not convinced she is a cow and has never been a fan of grazing.

When she first arrived at the ranch she didn’t even know what grass was.” But even now, after getting accustomed to life on the ranch, she refuses to graze. Instead, the 1,200-pound heifer prefers to be fed like a dog.

“I think she thinks it’s pointless finding her own food when she can wait on us bringing it to her in a bowl, like her dog friends” said Beth.

In fact, she also gets restless when there’s too much food around, knocking over furniture that gets in her way.

“If she goes into a room she causes mayhem - especially if she spots some snacks.”

The Grace Foundation normally rescues and rehabilitates ‘last chance’ horses, but they made an exception for Milkshake because she’s such a unique animal. “Everyone loves Milkshake - she’s certainly one of a kind,” said Beth.

No toilet breaks, Thai bus conductors wear diapers

How lucky we are! Whenever we want to relieve ourselves there are toilets at our convenience. But it is not the same to bus conductors in Bangkok, Thailand. They are not granted the most basic toilet breaks.

They have to continue to work till they are off for the day.Hence to ease their urgent need they are wearing adult diapers and are forced to answer nature’s call on the job. This may sound unbelievable and inhuman but it is true and sad.

The story is the same in several parts of Thailand - blue collar workers are not even provided with basic amenities. And bus conductors are the worst affected. Without any work breaks to tend to their physiological needs, they have to wear diapers all day long and that makes them ill. According to a survey conducted by the Thai Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, 28 percent of female bus conductors wear diapers during their 16-hour shift.“We were shocked”, said Jaded Chonwilai, Director of the Foundation.” We also found that many of them suffer urinary tract infections and stones in the bladder. Many of them also have uterus cancer.”

There is a campaign by bus conductors and unionists to force the authorities to grant them better working conditions. Stuck for hours each day in snarling traffic, Thai bus conductors have found a radical solution to a lack of toilet breaks

- adult nappies.