A few years ago we met Megan Turner here in Fargo and found her work to be insanely unique, foraged, edgy, and beautiful using bones and natural elements to create. We are so grateful she is back to creating with her handmade business Soul to Bone and can’t wait for you to get to know her better below!
Tell us a bit about yourself:
I am originally an east coast girl who is entirely in love with the ocean…I miss it every day!! I love being outside, hiking, foraging and finding are some of my favorite past times. Also my bed…without a doubt sleeping is one of my favorite things and something I don’t get enough of. I am a mom, a fiancé and beyond being a maker I have two jobs…forever tired…forever projects in progress and forever dreaming about tacos!! 😊
Describe your handmade business:
The beauty of the juxtaposition between life and death. That is the foremost thought/tagline that comes to my mind when I think about what my goal is, what I make and my future goals. I work with items that others may see as ugly, trash or unusable and I make them beautiful. I make jewelry from animal bones and other animal products (spines, scales, fur etc.) I also make terrariums featuring succulents and found animal products/bones as well as doing custom animal skull art. This is a very involved process that starts out as a hand cleaned and whitened skull that becomes a piece of art using items such as metal filigree, watch and clock parts and small metal findings.
What is one of your most favorite items you have made?
My most favorite thing I have ever done is a custom commission bobcat skull that is adorned with filigree and watch parts mounted on a beautiful leaf candle holder and housed in a dome, it currently resides in Florida and to be honest…she was so hard to give up!! (picture included!)
What are your most essential tools?
I always have about three pairs of assorted pliers with me, I couldn’t do what I do without them, I also always have a Dremel and a tool box of jewelry findings…jump rings, chains etc…. as well as a large assortment of bones….you never know when an idea is going to strike!!
How has your business evolved over the years since beginning to do handmade things?
I started doing this back in 2013, and I was really just getting rolling with jewelry production, learning the ins and outs of bone processing and cleaning and how to ethically source all my materials….then life happened and it all came to halt. Fortunately about 6 months ago I was able to pull out my supplies and start again…and honestly it has been a crazy ride…in a great way, I have been given so many opportunities to showcase my work in art shows, as a maker for Unglued and my Etsy shop…it’s been amazing and I have so many future aspirations for all of this!!!!
What is one of the craziest supplies you have worked with?
This is going to sound gross and really weird…..but animals that I have found deceased in nature…everything is usable and salvageable if you can see the beauty!!
What is a word that best describes you?
This is such a hard question!! I guess if I had to pick one word it would be fierce…I am fierce in my beliefs, I am fierce in my actions…I am fierce in a positive…I put my all in…I give my all and I persevere…
What advice would you have given yourself 5 years ago?
Oh jeez….I would have told myself to not give up on me….its so much easier to give up on yourself and just move on. Don’t do it. Follow your dreams. Make it happen. You are worth it.
Any super random tidbit about yourselves?!
Ha. I have a love/hate relationship with and for birds. They scare me. But I love to work with bird skulls and I have approximately 15 birds tattooed on me! Face your fear I guess is my motto for that!!
Website/etsy of your work:
www.etsy.com/shop/SoultoBone
Thank you so much, Megan, for sharing your behind-the-scenes and process with us! Be sure to check her out in our shop and online on Etsy!