The Bone Collector

One of the many things I love about living rural is how gracefully life and death are melded together in one grand show of perfection - rarely have I stumbled upon anything decaying in the woods and said "oh gross", but rather made my own peace with mortality. Yesterday me and my nature lovin' comrade took a walk along a fence line only to discover almost an entire cow in bones! As an artist I am drawn to the beautiful lines, biomimicry in the shapes, and the awesomeness of the anatomy - while the survivalist in me is like what can we make with bones to make our economically depressed lives easier?!! Bones have been used since the cave man days for tools, weapons, adornment, instruments, sculpture and in modern times in searching for cures. We carried all the bones (skull, hips, ribs, spine, legs, jaws, etc...) back to the house in bags and a giant camping backpack, and then put them in buckets of vinegar & salt to soak before laying them out in the sun to bleach properly. Tools and art will be made, and I will post pictures here when it's done! :)
Do you collect anything like this in nature for your creative or survival purposes? Do you have any favorite links to bone art or tools?
XOXO