AMERICAN artist Jason Borders uses a simple Dremel rotary tool to turn creepy animal skulls into intricate works of art that sell for hundreds of dollars.

    Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Borders always had an interest in bones and started collecting them at a very young age. “I always had a little cabinet of curiosities in my room, and in the garage,” he says, but he didn’t start using them as a medium for his art until much later in his life. He always an artistic streak and used to take art classes at the Lexington Art League in his spare time. He later attended the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, but only worked with traditional materials like clay and paper. That was until a few years ago when he discovered an elk carcass while driving through the desert.

    “I loaded most of it in my Honda Civic,” he recalled. “I almost got arrested doing this.” He took the carcass home, cleaned it, and then took out a Dremel rotary grinding tool that he had received as a Christmas gift. “Looking at the Dremel and looking at the bones next to each other, I picked it up and started working on it. The garage was right underneath my house, and I ended up filling the house with dust, and made myself really sick and made my wife really angry. Then I did it for another four years, but I’m much more careful these days.”

    Borders uses the Dremel tool to engrave his intricate designs — consisting of dots and lines — into the skulls, producing asymmetrical patterns that are reminiscent of paisley prints or traditional mehendi art. He then inks the patterns for contrast and applies a protective finish.

    “I do not plan my designs at all. I don’t think I would have the patience to finish anything if I did. I’m convinced that you’ll get better results from sticking to a simple approach that incorporates randomization, improvisation, intuition, etc. than thorough planning,” the young artist says. “I always work in the same way, have the same approach. With bones, they may be similar in shape, but there are all different kinds you could imagine, and beyond that, there’s the density of the bone, how long it was left outside, the age of the animal when it died — they all affect the way I work and the way it looks in the end.”

    (SD-Agencies)