Diamonds are forever, but bones have a special staying power of their own.
In the once-booming coal town of Hanna, where the wind whistles across the prairie and the skeletal remains of the town's wildlife lie scattered among the surrounding hills, Draya Cruz has found a unique source of artistic inspiration.
The dearly departed, and more specifically, their bones.
Rather than turning up her nose at the sight of dead things, Cruz sees material for macabre jewelry and artwork.
She scavenges the weather-beaten roads for workable leftovers to be transformed into something that can be worn around the neck, dangled from an earlobe or hung on the wall.
It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for people who appreciate the strange and unusual, that's part of the attraction.
Just ask her sister-in-law, Alice Million, who owns a pair of earrings made by Cruz from snake vertebrae.
Her daughter has a pair, too. And yes, people notice.
"Oh yeah, definitely," Million said. The reaction isn't always shock.
"It's usually surprise," she said, explaining that the accessories "soften the whole snake thing, because it's neat and it's pretty."
Vulture Culture
Cruz is far from alone in her unusual artistic interests.
There's even a name for the fascination with collecting dead things to be turned into art: vulture culture.
The subculture has carved out a sizable corner of the internet, where artists, collectors and enthusiasts buy and sell everything from animal skulls and preserved insects to bone jewelry.
On Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, a search for "vulture culture" turns up more than 5,000 listings.
The site's bone jewelry category alone features thousands of items, including earrings made from mink bones adorned in pearls, fox toes fashioned into chainmail and tiny glass vials of rodent teeth.
Some pieces sell for less than $20. Others command considerably more.
The site lists an elaborate necklace combining carved deer antler, a rat jawbone, animal teeth and claws encrusted with crystals for $1,200.
While the internet has made it easier for people with such tastes to find one another, Cruz's inspiration comes from a much quieter place — her own backyard.
"We'll be out camping or whatever, and see something, and they're like, why are you gonna keep that?" Cruz shares.
She doesn't let a little bit of flesh or fur bother her — "Well, you know, there's just a little bit to clean up off of it," Cruz tells horrified onlookers before loading carcasses into the bed of a truck.
At home, she can use sand or salt to shake remaining tissue off smaller bones, then wash them off with hydrogen peroxide and let them bleach in the sun.
'She Likes Odd Things'
"It's pretty easy to come across the bones right now," said Cruz. ""You can check out the outskirts of Hanna and run into them, or, you know, around the rivers and lakes, and especially with that lake drying up over here on the Hanna side."
The surrounding region supports big game, including elk, mule deer and pronghorn.
Cruz says scorpions can be found with some success beneath rocks, but she hasn't quite worked up the nerve.
"If I could get over that fear ..." she trailed off, quick to add that she prefers to source her specimens humanely, but the occasional spider gets preserved in her freezer for later projects.
Million, too, says there's no shortage of interesting things to look for when exploring the hills of Carbon County.
"Yeah, it's not bad, for sure," she said. "I'll, you know, just go out in the countryside and find stuff."
The hunt has become part of a new tradition among Cruz and her friends.
Million says she's one of the women who gather for what they call "Sunday Funday" to make art out of their findings.
"We have a pretty good girl group that we do things with," Million said. "We just really like the natural side of things, and it's fun."
Within their creative circle, a local bartender named Amy Kinder makes tinctures from natural herbs.
Together, the group has been putting miniature worlds with tiny skulls and mummified bugs into terrarium-like glass jars. Each is its own ecosystem of decaying matter, ready to be placed on the mantel.
Not Your Grandma's Pearls
Cruz has "always kind of had like an oddities vibe to her," said Million. "She likes the odd things."
She sells her jewelry at local craft fairs, including the town's farmers market at the Hanna Recreation Center in the summer and fall alongside other vendors with fresh produce, local honey and baked goods.
For Saturday's holiday market, Cruz has paired tiny ivory-colored bones with shimmering quartz and delicate silver Christmas charms. Others feature the same grisly detail paired with brightly colored bauble beads.
"I like it because it's different," she said of work overall. "The odd part of it. I like the odd part of it."
In Cruz's hands, the hollow eye sockets of an elk skull can become alcoves for flowers.
Tiny kneecaps might be the unlikely anchors for brightly colored beads.
In a world of mass-produced accessories and familiar jewelry store displays, that individuality is what Million admires.
"She's amazing," Million said. "She's definitely her own person and beats to her own drum. That makes her pretty special nowadays, so I love that."
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
