The trick with snake skin is to dust it with mica powder. It'll help it show up in resin, because otherwise, it tends to get so translucent that it disappears.
I did this with lots of different reptile sheds from water dragons, bearded dragons & snakes and make necklace pendants and accent pieces for magic wands. it works amazingly with mics especially when done in multiple colors or color shifts micas
Hey Peter!!! Love the look of scales on scales! :) I'm a snake keeper (and ex-breeder) and have also played with snake shed in resin (It's a shed skin, as opposed to a 'skin' which would be like a whole skin removed from a deceased snake, similar to what they use for snake leather). I have a few hints for you. Firstly, when you get the sheds they're usually inside out. It makes a huge difference to the end look if you turn them back to the right side. Secondly, if you are having issues with the skin being too dry (it dries out as it ages and gets more brittle), you can re-wet it with some water. Even just a spritz of water will help. If you spritz it with water, then cut it along the scutes (the longer scales which were the snake's belly scales), open it out and put it between two pieces of absorbent paper (paper towel or blotting paper) and you can then put the weights on it and let it dry flat. Another thing to note is that most sheds have a face at one end, with the eye-caps intact (unless the shed has been broken by the snake or the person collecting it). The shed-off face is a really interesting part, you can, as I said, see the eyes, heat-pits, and lip scales. I think you could make something really interesting with those, maybe the edges of a nice bowl or something? I understand that you live in CA, but if you ever get up to the North of the USA, look up Snake Discovery on UA-cam. They have a reptile 'zoo' which your daughter would absolutely love. Finally, my son asked for a pet snake when he was five or six. I told him he'd have to wait until he was older. Life-crap happened and it worked out that we couldn't actually get him one until he was 22. Now, I'm extremely sorry I didn't get him one when he was little. They are such EASY pets to look after. You literally feed them once a fortnight and clean their tanks about the same amount. Just need to make sure the heat is on and the water vessel is filled (bowl or whatever). That's basically it. They need to be handled often, otherwise they lose their 'handleability' (they basically get more wild, like dogs do if they become strays). Make sure you get one from a good breeder (again, look up Snake Discovery, they sell snakes they breed, and also have snakes which are surrendered by people who can no longer care for them). They also have other breeders they recommend, watch their videos, you'll see who they are (or your daughter can watch them). Anyway, Good on you for facing your fears!! I know when we first got snakes I was really fearful of being bitten, but I lost that fear after the first few times (Note, most pet snakes don't bite as they are well handled. Baby snakes, which are untrained, can bite, as can adult snakes who are not pets, but solely used for breeding and not handled often. I have now been bitten by some B-I-G snakes (like 12ft long ones). It hurts, but not for long). I hope you do lose your fear enough that you consider getting one for your daughter!!! :D
PS: Peter - I completely forgot to mention, there's a really great video on Snake Discovery's UA-cam site which is all about casting snake sheds into jewellery. If you need any info about setting cast skin into resin, that might be a good place to have a look!!!
Hi, snake nerd here, judging by the pattern, looks like the shed is from a ball python, also known as a royal python. Completely harmless, slow moving, and most are, in fact, complete cowards and would rather curl up in a ball to defend themselves than strike. They also have adorable puppy faces. I know you didn't ask but I just wanted to infodump really quick hahaha As for the rest of the shed, I feel the texture would look really nice on top of some colors; I'm imagining a sort of teal-blue-aquamarine color scheme, maybe with a bit of pearlescence as well. The material makes for some interesting looking necklace pendants and other jewelry, and there's quite a few shops selling em on etsy. I've only ever seen it flattened, though, so I'm curious how it would look bunched up in a bracelet with some swirls of color
My daughter loves snakes and would get one if it wasn't for me. She took me to this place in Berkeley that was AMAZING. Terrifying, but AMAZING. eastbayvivarium.com/
This is why outdoor education for kiddos is so important. I think it's really great that you chose to get really uncomfy and push ahead with the project. Hopefully you've completely overcome your apprehension, especially seeing the finished products, which is cool as heck!
Fun fact: when a snake sheds its skin, the skin ends up inside out. Like if you've ever peeled off a tight shirt, it ends up inside out. For future projects could I suggest trying to display the "inside" of the skin tube as it was presented to you (though I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make). Speaking of suggestions: I think snake skin would look awesome in a pen. Can you make it happen, Mr. Brown?
Honestly, a resin snake would be ba...imagine like a full snake skin resin creation. Would take ages, be impossible, but hey. You have a non-alive skinned snake. You could hang it like a fishing trophy.
Idea for a snake skin: use the whole piece to make a walking stick, with the handle being a head. This would probably require soaking the skin and pre-shaping it on a tube or something, to prevent it from breaking up in the process.
Issue with that is you dont really see the head since that's where the shedding starts. The shed is basically shaped like a sock with a hole on one end and a tail on the other
I knew what happened when the video just stopped when I was about 10 minutes in and it suddenly said "unavailable", so I'm just really happy you got it back up so quickly! I was thoroughly enjoying how uncomfy the snake skin was making you!😅
you sir underestimate my go crazy abilities. Watched it on the first upload and twice again already. Snake skin in acid green glowstick dyed resin. Specifically like the yellow/green glow stick given the results from your Stegosaurus Dye Trying 3 with the pink one coming out so translucent.
Growing up as a country kid, I very much enjoyed this. We grew up regularly catching and playing with black snakes in and round the barn. We have a rew 4ft or more long that were mousers. You could go in the barn and hear them slithering through the foam insulation, following the mouse tunnels.
Given the running knife jokes with Emily on snake discovery, she needs one of these. Also she made a video about how to make jewelry with snake skin and how to work with it, if you ever wanted to deal with snake skin again.
If there are different colored skins in there, it would look great alternating them as the squares on a chess/checkers board. Could even make checker pieces with the skin as well.
I could hear a fragility in your voice when you were first handling the snake skin, you got way better as the video progressed. I've never really had any unease to many things, so I can't really sympathize well, but I can give you props for getting through it! Kudos!
I’ve made snake skin resin pendants and they look so good on vibrant colours like teal or gold. I also suggest trimming off the belly scales (the large elongated ones) then misting the skin with water then cutting and drying it flat so it doesn’t crack or crumble from being cut
If you'd like to handle a live snake and overcome your fear, I'm a park ranger in Palo Alto. We have a couple of gopher snakes that we use for educational programs(we let 4 and 5 year olds handle them, with supervision of course) and we might get a ball python(what this shed probably came from) soon that is also very friendly. I'm happy to introduce you to any of them. As far as projects, I would love to see this used as the top layer on something, so that you get that texture. A very thin coat of resin or maybe even just CA glue over it. Beyond that, perhaps a walking stick?
So proud of you for facing your fears! I have OCD and am extremely familiar with facing irrational fears (and rational ones with irrational reactions), you did great!
Something a buddy told me helps him handle snake sheds when he has to (leatherworking, it's soooo fragile but it makes a nice inlay on some stuff) is to tell himself it's "just a weird fish" or "just weird bird leg skin" which he's totally fine with handling.
Those skins look really good and you were given whole snake skins which are expensive because snakes usually shed chunks. Getting the entire body is not as common. Great donation from the Smith Family. I think maybe making like a staff with some see through, not opaque or they call it candy pigments with the skins would be amazing. Thanks for the video. Like always, you rock my dude.
Sometimes snakes shed in chunks but thats usually a sign of improper humidity in their enclosure. A healthy snake kept in good conditions should shed in one piece most of the time.
Awesome work. I love the way they turned out! Your noise aversion to the skins is the same way I feel about wooden sticks scrapping the sides of paper cups when mixing things lol
Idea for some of the snakeskin: draw it out and fill it with rings fit around a tube, and fill the space around the tube to make a "lamppost", and put a fluorescent light bulb inside, so you get a snakeskin pattern whenever the light turns on!
Are you TRYING to send him to the Funny Farm? Cause as cool as that sounds (I want one), that would drive him the rest of the way around the bend... 😄😁😆😅😂🤣
Peter I've watched you all throughout high school and I really look forward to your new videos, your work is so loved by me and many others!! Please never stop what you do!
Bravo on handling that skin!! 👏 It looked really sweet! Wonder how the more white/clear areas would take dye? It would be fun(?) to see a pot in the shape of the rattle made from snake skin.
I have two cats and they are always catching and bringing home live snakes from the neighborhood. Nothing poisonous yet. I think you did an awesome job on the knife scales.
If you can find the "head" shed that would look pretty cool as a pendant.. also would you be able to maybe dye the skin? Maybe colored resin.. would def like to see more projects with the snake skin
I think a night light of some short using clear resin with just alil pearl mica powder or some other colors just lightly swirled through the resin and having the snake skin shine be the primary show. or even some snake skin eggs
Your fear of snakes is fascinating to me. I live in New Zealand, and we have no snakes at all. When you were talking about the sound it makes, I could not have been able to tell it apart from just leaves rustling. It really shows how you become more attuned to the dangers of the animals around the environment you live in.
I'm a knife maker and I'd be interested in buying a couple sets of those snake skin knife scales or snake skin micarta for scales or handles if you were so inclined to make more.
This little ditty from Bob's Burgers seems appropriate for this video: 🎶 I'm not afraid of ghosts I'm not afraid of sharks I'm not afraid of cancer I'm just afraid of snakes! They really creep me out Where are their arms and legs? It's not okay! 🎶
As someone who likes the outdoors, you can find these all over the Southern US. Snakes really like small pine trees and fences for shedding in the wild.
“Some of you keep telling me to round the edges on my knives” he says, menacingly brandishing a knife. “It’s probably never going to be used, but if I did pick it up it would feel good in my hand as I plunged it into the comment section” Great content as always Peter, congrats on confronting your fear!
1- this is hella cool 2- thank you for making this video. I too am in fear of dangernoodles. It's something I cannot seem to logic away and I feel a lot better knowing there is a cool adult I respect who has the same fear. You go Mr Brown!
This fear is in some of us for a very good reason. That's why they're called phobias, irrational fears. Self preservation is why we're the dominant species on this lil rock. For example, my phobia is spiders. Can play with insects and snakes and even daddy long legs all day long, but see a spider sprinting at me and I'ma scream like a little girl and run as fast as I can 😂 let alone walking into an orbie web 😭 and they're probably the nicest and most interesting spiders we know of but goddamn just the thought of one of those chilling on me cuz it built a web in a shitty spot is literally a nightmare to me. Wake up in cold sweats and everything
Usually it's many of their webs blocking me in the bathroom where I can't do anything to escape but go through them 😢 even though they're solitary as fuck and don't congregate, but yeah lol irrational mind will out-terrify any logic 😂 but this is how we've evolved and it's for a reason
This is so awesome! I have a container of snake castings from my two scaley babies that unfortunately passed away, and I've been wanting to do something with them art wise. So it's awesome to see that this works like a charm! Great work!
@@seanathanbeanathan thank you Sean! It's been a few years. I miss em and I'm glad I now have some ideas for what to do with the shed skins after seeing this.
Ohh the white one came out gorgeous; an idea I thought of would maybe be dusting one side of the skin with a bit of mica powder to give it a shimmery feel! Also to help with flattening/unraveling stubborn skins you can spritz or briefly soak the particular skin you’re using so it softens up and is less brittle! You can then flatten it out much easier
The sheddings aren’t too creepy, though I don’t have much room to talk. We once had a pet rosy boa. They’re extremely docile, but it got out of its cage once and I walked by and saw it balled up on a pair of my sister’s shoes. I practically launched myself onto the kitchen table. My mom came home a few minutes later, scooped the snake up, and laughed at what a big chicken I was. Even from someone who’s a giant baby when it comes to snakes, I can still admire their beauty. Came out super cool! Also, you got a great pun waiting there now that you have some scaly scales.
To get a better pattern on the shed skins, turn them inside out, since the snake sheds their skin like a sock, the sheds are actually inverted. I think a bangle would be very cool, you could even dye the skins before casting them in resin to make them pop! :D
I make stuff with our snakes' shed skin all the time! The best patterns come from our boa imperator and our plains hognose, but the hognose's skin is thicker and easier to work with. The skin you used for those knife scales came from a ball python, btw, which is a snake I do not have.
I really love the look of it. Maybe cast it into sheets and assemble little planter boxes for succulents out of it. Tiny cactuses sticking out snakeskin.
Hey as someone who can’t stand working with some textures or things that make certain sounds, good on you for powering through the awkward phase and creating something beautiful! I personally love snakes and think they’re super cool and beautiful, but I can imagine working with what is essentially dead crinkly skin can creep someone out. The result is incredible though!!
As soon as I saw that pattern, I was reminded of Snake Discovery and their Burmese Pythons. Absolutely beautiful snakes, sadly taking over the Everglades, but beautiful. But yeah, as someone else mentioned, a light blue or green under the shed would look STELLAR, and absolutely would set off the colors of the scales.
Hi Peter, The snake skin is inside out, you can soak the skins in water to make them soft and turn the right way out and dry them flat. but as you cut them and made two rectangular sections make sure the raised/protruding scale side is up (outside of the skin) and the side that makes the scales indented is the (inside of the skin) also if you have the head of the skin the snake shed will still have the eye lenses and nostrils which would probably make an interesting project.
Oh my gosh that's so cool! Snake skin (or any reptile skin, really) makes beautiful jewelry. Pendants, bracelets, even earrings. Yes, they're called scales and light/bright colors always work best to bring out the pattern on the scales. Snake Discovery made a video all about jewelry using reptile skin. Also, you should just check them out in general. They have helped so many people ease or conquer their fear of snakes. They have a reptile facility in Minnesota if you ever want to visit. I want them to see this video!
Yooo this is so cool. The scales with the white are beautiful! I wish I had some snake skin. I have a friend thats into resin who I think would find some really cool ways to use it. With the leftovers: maybe see if Bobby Duke would be interested in making something with it? I know he had a lizard so that might be something he'd be into.
Sheds are always cool when you get a complete one. My snake usually 💩 in his when he sheds. Most of my buds usually want to see him eat but way more interesting to observe him shedding in my opinion. Love the project!
My first thought was "dragon blade!" Haha, maybe not another knife but, you could dye the resin or the scales, or even dry brush the scales with an irridenscent powder before thd pour. Scale mail jewlery, if I had the resources I would make fantasy dragon jewlery, armor if I had the time and money haha, but I definetly think you should try experimenting with the color before the pour
Given the translucency of the snake skin, something with light would be the way to go if you do another snake skin project. A lamp shade perhaps? If you hadn't done a knife with it, I would have suggested snake skin micarta knife blanks.
epoxy resin shelf with led lights to shine through the snake skin. nice job with the snake skin for a first attempt. I like the white background better than the black one also. Great choices.
It would be cool to see you make a big block of layered snakeskin then turn it on the lathe into something. Keep the layers around 1/4" apart so there's a lot of snakeskin for light to pass through. The layers between clear might produce a very nice/interesting simmer or iridescent effect.
That handle is beautiful! Maybe you could try a lamp stand or candle lamp with some of the remaining snake skin? Can't wait to see what you come up with next!!
Amazing video! It was so good to see you progressing from panic to casual tolerance. My mom and I loved this so much. Congrats on your tolerance in this very specific instance, and thank you for sharing it! (And what a gorgeous knife handle!)
If you want to flatten it more easily, just get it damp, and then lay it out flat. It's even more delicate when it's wet though, be careful with moving it around. You have some really cool sheds there. You may want to consider working with the heads of the shed as well. You can see the eye caps, and the head scales are large and look quite interesting.
I love snakes 😁 Congrats on over coming your discomfort! (Everybody's got a phobia. For me it's grasshopper and crickets.) The project came out beautifully. I'd love to see some pendants with experiments with different colored back grounds. I liked the black too, but it definitely wasn't right for the knife. 😁
I am terrified of snakes. Ran into a very large one as a kid and that was definitely the fastest I've ever run in my entire life. As soon as I saw you doing black, I said, that is not going to show up very well. I'm so glad you did it again in the white. Actually, I think clear would have been best that way you can see the creepy snake skin on both sides. Lol! Kudos to you for having the guts to even open the bag. Let alone touch it.
Actually, after I think about it, the blanks are put back-to-back so you see the skin on both sides. And without the background color, you would see the blade handle that is sandwiched between. So strike that comment. Lol
I really like this one. The effect of the snake skin on white resin is amazing. I was cringing watching you open the bag with a clear fear of snakes. I can relate. I have a fear of spiders and a love of photography and I used this love of photography to over come to some extent my fear for spiders by taking major close up photos of orb weaving spiders. So good on you for over comming your fear of snakes and producing something amazing
its so funny as a reptile owner to listen to you sounding vaguely terrified while talking about how sheds work. just a normal part of having pets for me! you can trim out good sections and use resin or cabuchons to make really pretty snake shed jewelry.
I find it helps to mist the skin shed with water and it becomes more pliable and less fragile for handling. It dries out rather quickly so you don't have to worry about moisture in your resin.
Snakes honestly feel super cool, like smooth but textured. Kind of like tumbled rocks meets leather? I miss my corn snake, she was so sweet and loved to be held
I still have my snake's first ever shed. It's a juvenile ball python who turns 2 in a couple of days. He's only about a foot and a half to 2 feet long. I have him registered as my emotional support animal, allowing me to keep him at my university apartment.
Glad to see you back. April seems like forever ago. Hope all is well with you & your family. This project turned out awesome. Can't wait to see what you do next
I think some jewelry like some bangles and even ear rings and a pendant would be awesome to make with the snake skin, maybe a turquoise and/or mitalic/shimmer translucent pigments would be an awesome touch.
I've seen people make dice with snake skins. They typically dye them with alcohol inks or brush them with mica powder. Really cool affects when cast in resin.
I'm very impressed that you overcame a fear to do this. Put me up high or near a clown and I'll just nope the heck outta there so the fact that you were able to handle the shed is very cool. You probably won't want to ever handle a snake for real so I'm going to describe the sensation because it's kind of awesome. First, they're heavier than they look. The skin and the layer of fat under it make them have this weird combination of soft and squidgy on top of this hard feeling just solid muscle. The skin itself is dry like human skin, very smooth, and ever so slightly textured because of the scales. The closest I can think of is that bit of skin on the sole of your foot - between the heel and ball - where it's all soft but lined.
I once had a biology teacher who handed us pieces of boa skin so we could see how the snake's scales were distributed and such. I glued it into my biology notebook.
Perfect idea t make a knife handle. When you first opened up the skins, I thought you would use all clear resin so that the patterns and color variations would show on both sides, or make a snake skin tumber.
That's snake skins are beautiful. I used to raised red tail boas. Oh my, he was so beautiful too. We (me and my ex's) gave it to one of our friend because we couldn't afford mice or rats. And I remembered my husband came in the den and I was on my computer playing Sims 3 game and he said, "close your eyes." So I did. Then he said, " open your eyes." I said, yep 👍! And went back to my game. I was having a bad mood day as soon as I read the title I got excited and knew you were going to make the hilt. I love it.
Might look interesting to try different colors behind the snake skin. Or even a gradient of two colors, white and black, red and blue, high contrast. Incredible work!
Peter is a national treasure and he is immensely undervalued as such. Thanks for another fantastic video! Just as a friendly FYI, I wouldn't necessarily call your raw castings "knife scales"- in my experience, this term is most commonly reserved for shaped, finished knife handles. For example, my off-the-shelf Boker Kwaiken Mini is the option with "titanium scales". I do, however, agree with "scale blanks" being the most appropriate name for the raw castings you made- I think most any knife maker would know what you're talking about if you referred to them as "scale blanks", "knife scale blanks", or "knife scale material". Thanks again for another great video! Wow, the end result of this video is incredible as always- what a great decision to switch to a white background layer!
ive got two little mason jars of these (and when i say mason jars, i mean they used to hold pasta sauce). they arent really "skins" rather sheds! its a natural process snakes (and all reptiles) go through, where instead of how mammals "shed" where our dead skin just falls off bit by bit, it comes off all at once or in big chunks. theyre pretty neat!
I really love and feel proud of you overcoming ick feeling to try something new, one thing I suggest is instead of white/black is try a pale colour like blue or green. Another suggestion is to try soaking the skin in a dye, I think it would soak it up very well.
Snakeskin candy bowl for halloween. Extra crazy, weave the skins like a basket then cast in a bowl.
Brilliant!!!
This
I second this as well
He'll either get over his phobia or die lol.
Sounds cool but he barely got through this he'd have to deal with it longer trying to weave it
"Hopefully you're not grossed out by snake skins."
I think that look he shot the bag says everything.
“I have had it with these motherf-- snakes on this motherf-- plane.” - Samuel L. Jackson
The trick with snake skin is to dust it with mica powder. It'll help it show up in resin, because otherwise, it tends to get so translucent that it disappears.
^this^ especially with interference or colorshift powders!
Ponders gold mica
omg with some color shift mica 🤩😍
I did this with lots of different reptile sheds from water dragons, bearded dragons & snakes and make necklace pendants and accent pieces for magic wands. it works amazingly with mics especially when done in multiple colors or color shifts micas
Hey Peter!!! Love the look of scales on scales! :)
I'm a snake keeper (and ex-breeder) and have also played with snake shed in resin (It's a shed skin, as opposed to a 'skin' which would be like a whole skin removed from a deceased snake, similar to what they use for snake leather).
I have a few hints for you.
Firstly, when you get the sheds they're usually inside out. It makes a huge difference to the end look if you turn them back to the right side.
Secondly, if you are having issues with the skin being too dry (it dries out as it ages and gets more brittle), you can re-wet it with some water. Even just a spritz of water will help. If you spritz it with water, then cut it along the scutes (the longer scales which were the snake's belly scales), open it out and put it between two pieces of absorbent paper (paper towel or blotting paper) and you can then put the weights on it and let it dry flat.
Another thing to note is that most sheds have a face at one end, with the eye-caps intact (unless the shed has been broken by the snake or the person collecting it). The shed-off face is a really interesting part, you can, as I said, see the eyes, heat-pits, and lip scales. I think you could make something really interesting with those, maybe the edges of a nice bowl or something?
I understand that you live in CA, but if you ever get up to the North of the USA, look up Snake Discovery on UA-cam. They have a reptile 'zoo' which your daughter would absolutely love.
Finally, my son asked for a pet snake when he was five or six. I told him he'd have to wait until he was older. Life-crap happened and it worked out that we couldn't actually get him one until he was 22. Now, I'm extremely sorry I didn't get him one when he was little. They are such EASY pets to look after. You literally feed them once a fortnight and clean their tanks about the same amount. Just need to make sure the heat is on and the water vessel is filled (bowl or whatever). That's basically it. They need to be handled often, otherwise they lose their 'handleability' (they basically get more wild, like dogs do if they become strays). Make sure you get one from a good breeder (again, look up Snake Discovery, they sell snakes they breed, and also have snakes which are surrendered by people who can no longer care for them). They also have other breeders they recommend, watch their videos, you'll see who they are (or your daughter can watch them).
Anyway, Good on you for facing your fears!! I know when we first got snakes I was really fearful of being bitten, but I lost that fear after the first few times (Note, most pet snakes don't bite as they are well handled. Baby snakes, which are untrained, can bite, as can adult snakes who are not pets, but solely used for breeding and not handled often. I have now been bitten by some B-I-G snakes (like 12ft long ones). It hurts, but not for long).
I hope you do lose your fear enough that you consider getting one for your daughter!!! :D
As part of the team at snake discovery this touches my heart 💕 come check out the facility some time
@@haleychaase5245 Thanks Haley! I'm in Melbourne (Australia), so it might be a while.
If I was in the USA - I would have already been there! :D
PS: Peter - I completely forgot to mention, there's a really great video on Snake Discovery's UA-cam site which is all about casting snake sheds into jewellery. If you need any info about setting cast skin into resin, that might be a good place to have a look!!!
Hi, snake nerd here, judging by the pattern, looks like the shed is from a ball python, also known as a royal python. Completely harmless, slow moving, and most are, in fact, complete cowards and would rather curl up in a ball to defend themselves than strike. They also have adorable puppy faces. I know you didn't ask but I just wanted to infodump really quick hahaha
As for the rest of the shed, I feel the texture would look really nice on top of some colors; I'm imagining a sort of teal-blue-aquamarine color scheme, maybe with a bit of pearlescence as well. The material makes for some interesting looking necklace pendants and other jewelry, and there's quite a few shops selling em on etsy. I've only ever seen it flattened, though, so I'm curious how it would look bunched up in a bracelet with some swirls of color
Must be a female with how large the shed was.
For real, ball pythons are the only snakes I actually like. All the other ones, I'm terrified of.
@@bluecat2991 you obviously haven't seen a hognoes snake before. They are the most adorable, derpy looking harmless snakes.
My daughter loves snakes and would get one if it wasn't for me. She took me to this place in Berkeley that was AMAZING. Terrifying, but AMAZING.
eastbayvivarium.com/
I love the puppy faces of certain snakes. I just want to give them a gentle pat on their pit bull-style head ridge and hang out with 'em.
This is why outdoor education for kiddos is so important. I think it's really great that you chose to get really uncomfy and push ahead with the project. Hopefully you've completely overcome your apprehension, especially seeing the finished products, which is cool as heck!
Fun fact: when a snake sheds its skin, the skin ends up inside out. Like if you've ever peeled off a tight shirt, it ends up inside out.
For future projects could I suggest trying to display the "inside" of the skin tube as it was presented to you (though I'm not sure how much of a difference it will make).
Speaking of suggestions: I think snake skin would look awesome in a pen. Can you make it happen, Mr. Brown?
They also shed a clear scale over their eye.
@@TylerDollarhide yes! I check my ball python's sheds to make sure the eye cap comes off
I'm not sure how you'd go about making a pen from shed snake skin. Though he's got plenty so it's worth a shot
@@Anon_Omis he’s gotta make a mold where he doesn’t have to drill out the hole and use a more solid epoxy if he wants to do the background thing
Honestly, a resin snake would be ba...imagine like a full snake skin resin creation. Would take ages, be impossible, but hey. You have a non-alive skinned snake. You could hang it like a fishing trophy.
Idea for a snake skin: use the whole piece to make a walking stick, with the handle being a head. This would probably require soaking the skin and pre-shaping it on a tube or something, to prevent it from breaking up in the process.
Great idea! Kind of like the one Lucius Malfoy has in Harry Potter?
Issue with that is you dont really see the head since that's where the shedding starts.
The shed is basically shaped like a sock with a hole on one end and a tail on the other
Have you seen the guy who carves walking sticks here on UA-cam? He has done some of snakes and they are works of art!
@@WVdavidB Stinnett sticks, yes, truly a work of art!
No, you’re not going crazy. I accidentally uploaded the wrong format and had to delete and re-post it...
I knew what happened when the video just stopped when I was about 10 minutes in and it suddenly said "unavailable", so I'm just really happy you got it back up so quickly! I was thoroughly enjoying how uncomfy the snake skin was making you!😅
you sir underestimate my go crazy abilities. Watched it on the first upload and twice again already.
Snake skin in acid green glowstick dyed resin. Specifically like the yellow/green glow stick given the results from your Stegosaurus Dye Trying 3 with the pink one coming out so translucent.
Growing up as a country kid, I very much enjoyed this. We grew up regularly catching and playing with black snakes in and round the barn. We have a rew 4ft or more long that were mousers. You could go in the barn and hear them slithering through the foam insulation, following the mouse tunnels.
I'm gonna send you some dead carp from Lake Erie! Can't wait to see what you do with it!
Fantastic. Haha
Given the running knife jokes with Emily on snake discovery, she needs one of these. Also she made a video about how to make jewelry with snake skin and how to work with it, if you ever wanted to deal with snake skin again.
SHE SO DOES 😆
I was going to suggest Emily too! Lol!!
If there are different colored skins in there, it would look great alternating them as the squares on a chess/checkers board. Could even make checker pieces with the skin as well.
That’s a super fun idea!
If you made the "squares" on your chess board diamond shaped and backed them with two toned brown resin, you could really gross a lot of people out.
Congrats on the PERSONAL GROWTH Peter Brown!!!
I could hear a fragility in your voice when you were first handling the snake skin, you got way better as the video progressed. I've never really had any unease to many things, so I can't really sympathize well, but I can give you props for getting through it! Kudos!
I’ve made snake skin resin pendants and they look so good on vibrant colours like teal or gold. I also suggest trimming off the belly scales (the large elongated ones) then misting the skin with water then cutting and drying it flat so it doesn’t crack or crumble from being cut
If you'd like to handle a live snake and overcome your fear, I'm a park ranger in Palo Alto. We have a couple of gopher snakes that we use for educational programs(we let 4 and 5 year olds handle them, with supervision of course) and we might get a ball python(what this shed probably came from) soon that is also very friendly. I'm happy to introduce you to any of them.
As far as projects, I would love to see this used as the top layer on something, so that you get that texture. A very thin coat of resin or maybe even just CA glue over it. Beyond that, perhaps a walking stick?
So proud of you for facing your fears!
I have OCD and am extremely familiar with facing irrational fears (and rational ones with irrational reactions), you did great!
Thank you!
Something a buddy told me helps him handle snake sheds when he has to (leatherworking, it's soooo fragile but it makes a nice inlay on some stuff) is to tell himself it's "just a weird fish" or "just weird bird leg skin" which he's totally fine with handling.
I actually have a big irrational fear of/aversion to touching fish, so that would just make it worse for me lol
Actually, Its chemically identical to a handful of chicken feathers, a wool sock, or a cashmere sweater.
Super cool! This video felt like a classic dip-it video. I love hearing your wife comment on your projects, she's great.
Scaley Scales!? Awesome! That milky white on the second try was the perfect color. The finished piece is excellent!
I'm curious about layering the snake skins in resin and making a kind of organic micarta.
I'm proud of you for challenging your fear in order to work with it. And to say your work is always amazing.
That looks like a pretty complete shed that you picked out; sometimes it comes off in patches. I'm impressed.
Those skins look really good and you were given whole snake skins which are expensive because snakes usually shed chunks. Getting the entire body is not as common. Great donation from the Smith Family. I think maybe making like a staff with some see through, not opaque or they call it candy pigments with the skins would be amazing. Thanks for the video. Like always, you rock my dude.
Sometimes snakes shed in chunks but thats usually a sign of improper humidity in their enclosure. A healthy snake kept in good conditions should shed in one piece most of the time.
@@TallTeenTurtle
Thank you, I was about to say that 😌
@@theSheighani42 No no, thank you! I was about to reply the same thing.
@@-AT-WALKER
Pardon? You were going to reply which part, about the sheds...? 😅 I'm a little confused. I'm also trying to wake up s:
Awesome work. I love the way they turned out! Your noise aversion to the skins is the same way I feel about wooden sticks scrapping the sides of paper cups when mixing things lol
Idea for some of the snakeskin: draw it out and fill it with rings fit around a tube, and fill the space around the tube to make a "lamppost", and put a fluorescent light bulb inside, so you get a snakeskin pattern whenever the light turns on!
Are you TRYING to send him to the Funny Farm?
Cause as cool as that sounds (I want one), that would drive him the rest of the way around the bend...
😄😁😆😅😂🤣
That sounds like a lot to ask from a snakeskin
@@brandonfoley7519 The tube is just the internal form for the pole.
Peter I've watched you all throughout high school and I really look forward to your new videos, your work is so loved by me and many others!! Please never stop what you do!
“Practical is not really my thing,” he says. Understatement of the year! Gorgeous project Peter!
Bravo on handling that skin!! 👏 It looked really sweet! Wonder how the more white/clear areas would take dye? It would be fun(?) to see a pot in the shape of the rattle made from snake skin.
Im here for the future SnakeDiscovery colab, but fr great job overcoming the phobia for the sake of content!
Yes! I feel like if anyone could help Mr. Brown shake his fear through education and encounters it would be Ed and Emily!
I have two cats and they are always catching and bringing home live snakes from the neighborhood. Nothing poisonous yet. I think you did an awesome job on the knife scales.
If you can find the "head" shed that would look pretty cool as a pendant.. also would you be able to maybe dye the skin? Maybe colored resin.. would def like to see more projects with the snake skin
The head rarely remains intact.
@@TylerDollarhide I guess I've been lucky enough with some of the sheds from my snake and the head was intact. Hopefully he can find one.
We find maybe not fully intact but definitely recognizable heads in wild sheds in our yard.
That would be a massive pendant. Off of a python that big it would be like a tea plate hangin off your neck
I think a night light of some short using clear resin with just alil pearl mica powder or some other colors just lightly swirled through the resin and having the snake skin shine be the primary show.
or even some snake skin eggs
There we go it's back! Now I can send the link to my husband. 😁
Perhaps he will do something with the dangernoodle's shed he has as a pet.
Your fear of snakes is fascinating to me. I live in New Zealand, and we have no snakes at all. When you were talking about the sound it makes, I could not have been able to tell it apart from just leaves rustling. It really shows how you become more attuned to the dangers of the animals around the environment you live in.
I'm a knife maker and I'd be interested in buying a couple sets of those snake skin knife scales or snake skin micarta for scales or handles if you were so inclined to make more.
How much would you sell one of those theoretical knives for? Snakes and knives are my 2 favorite things in the world
@@caitlingwin5844 depending on the steel construction, between 150 and 250.
@@jacobtaunt5047 what steel would 250 be?
@@NathanRyan92 hand forged damascus.
@@NathanRyan92 swedish steel😏
The way you describe the snake skin shedding, like a dad talking about the birds and the bees is wonderful and hysterical. Proud of you, buckaroo
This little ditty from Bob's Burgers seems appropriate for this video:
🎶 I'm not afraid of ghosts
I'm not afraid of sharks
I'm not afraid of cancer
I'm just afraid of snakes!
They really creep me out
Where are their arms and legs?
It's not okay! 🎶
As someone who likes the outdoors, you can find these all over the Southern US.
Snakes really like small pine trees and fences for shedding in the wild.
“Some of you keep telling me to round the edges on my knives” he says, menacingly brandishing a knife. “It’s probably never going to be used, but if I did pick it up it would feel good in my hand as I plunged it into the comment section”
Great content as always Peter, congrats on confronting your fear!
1- this is hella cool 2- thank you for making this video. I too am in fear of dangernoodles. It's something I cannot seem to logic away and I feel a lot better knowing there is a cool adult I respect who has the same fear. You go Mr Brown!
This fear is in some of us for a very good reason. That's why they're called phobias, irrational fears. Self preservation is why we're the dominant species on this lil rock. For example, my phobia is spiders. Can play with insects and snakes and even daddy long legs all day long, but see a spider sprinting at me and I'ma scream like a little girl and run as fast as I can 😂 let alone walking into an orbie web 😭 and they're probably the nicest and most interesting spiders we know of but goddamn just the thought of one of those chilling on me cuz it built a web in a shitty spot is literally a nightmare to me. Wake up in cold sweats and everything
Usually it's many of their webs blocking me in the bathroom where I can't do anything to escape but go through them 😢 even though they're solitary as fuck and don't congregate, but yeah lol irrational mind will out-terrify any logic 😂 but this is how we've evolved and it's for a reason
This is so awesome! I have a container of snake castings from my two scaley babies that unfortunately passed away, and I've been wanting to do something with them art wise. So it's awesome to see that this works like a charm!
Great work!
I'm so sorry for you loss, I think that would be an awesome way to remember them
@@seanathanbeanathan thank you Sean! It's been a few years. I miss em and I'm glad I now have some ideas for what to do with the shed skins after seeing this.
Ohh the white one came out gorgeous; an idea I thought of would maybe be dusting one side of the skin with a bit of mica powder to give it a shimmery feel!
Also to help with flattening/unraveling stubborn skins you can spritz or briefly soak the particular skin you’re using so it softens up and is less brittle! You can then flatten it out much easier
The sheddings aren’t too creepy, though I don’t have much room to talk. We once had a pet rosy boa. They’re extremely docile, but it got out of its cage once and I walked by and saw it balled up on a pair of my sister’s shoes. I practically launched myself onto the kitchen table. My mom came home a few minutes later, scooped the snake up, and laughed at what a big chicken I was. Even from someone who’s a giant baby when it comes to snakes, I can still admire their beauty. Came out super cool! Also, you got a great pun waiting there now that you have some scaly scales.
To get a better pattern on the shed skins, turn them inside out, since the snake sheds their skin like a sock, the sheds are actually inverted. I think a bangle would be very cool, you could even dye the skins before casting them in resin to make them pop! :D
I make stuff with our snakes' shed skin all the time! The best patterns come from our boa imperator and our plains hognose, but the hognose's skin is thicker and easier to work with. The skin you used for those knife scales came from a ball python, btw, which is a snake I do not have.
I really love the look of it. Maybe cast it into sheets and assemble little planter boxes for succulents out of it. Tiny cactuses sticking out snakeskin.
That opening made me laugh so hard. Good on you for facing the scary unknown and still making great art anyway!
Hey as someone who can’t stand working with some textures or things that make certain sounds, good on you for powering through the awkward phase and creating something beautiful! I personally love snakes and think they’re super cool and beautiful, but I can imagine working with what is essentially dead crinkly skin can creep someone out. The result is incredible though!!
As soon as I saw that pattern, I was reminded of Snake Discovery and their Burmese Pythons. Absolutely beautiful snakes, sadly taking over the Everglades, but beautiful. But yeah, as someone else mentioned, a light blue or green under the shed would look STELLAR, and absolutely would set off the colors of the scales.
I love Snake Discovery 💚
I have seen dice makers on tiktok dyeing the shed and using them in dice and other resin projects. But, wow, that shed on the white is beautiful!
I have seen some other resin artists dye the snake shed and use it to simulate "dragon scales" in their art. It could be worth a try.
Hi Peter,
The snake skin is inside out, you can soak the skins in water to make them soft and turn the right way out and dry them flat.
but as you cut them and made two rectangular sections make sure the raised/protruding scale side is up (outside of the skin) and the side that makes the scales indented is the (inside of the skin)
also if you have the head of the skin the snake shed will still have the eye lenses and nostrils which would probably make an interesting project.
It turned out incredible! and you did really well handling a material you had such a visceral reaction to!
Oh my gosh that's so cool! Snake skin (or any reptile skin, really) makes beautiful jewelry. Pendants, bracelets, even earrings. Yes, they're called scales and light/bright colors always work best to bring out the pattern on the scales.
Snake Discovery made a video all about jewelry using reptile skin. Also, you should just check them out in general. They have helped so many people ease or conquer their fear of snakes. They have a reptile facility in Minnesota if you ever want to visit. I want them to see this video!
Yooo this is so cool. The scales with the white are beautiful! I wish I had some snake skin. I have a friend thats into resin who I think would find some really cool ways to use it.
With the leftovers: maybe see if Bobby Duke would be interested in making something with it? I know he had a lizard so that might be something he'd be into.
Sheds are always cool when you get a complete one. My snake usually 💩 in his when he sheds. Most of my buds usually want to see him eat but way more interesting to observe him shedding in my opinion. Love the project!
You never cease to amaze me with what you can turn into incredible art/tools!
My first thought was "dragon blade!" Haha, maybe not another knife but, you could dye the resin or the scales, or even dry brush the scales with an irridenscent powder before thd pour. Scale mail jewlery, if I had the resources I would make fantasy dragon jewlery, armor if I had the time and money haha, but I definetly think you should try experimenting with the color before the pour
I feel like some sort of cane or walking stick would be great, especially since some of those skins look to be really long
the scales are gorgeous! I was thinking maybe a bowl but you always do bowls. Maybe a small pear shaped vase or lamp body
Given the translucency of the snake skin, something with light would be the way to go if you do another snake skin project. A lamp shade perhaps?
If you hadn't done a knife with it, I would have suggested snake skin micarta knife blanks.
A lamp shed!
epoxy resin shelf with led lights to shine through the snake skin. nice job with the snake skin for a first attempt. I like the white background better than the black one also. Great choices.
It would be cool to see you make a big block of layered snakeskin then turn it on the lathe into something. Keep the layers around 1/4" apart so there's a lot of snakeskin for light to pass through. The layers between clear might produce a very nice/interesting simmer or iridescent effect.
That handle is beautiful! Maybe you could try a lamp stand or candle lamp with some of the remaining snake skin? Can't wait to see what you come up with next!!
Amazing video! It was so good to see you progressing from panic to casual tolerance. My mom and I loved this so much. Congrats on your tolerance in this very specific instance, and thank you for sharing it! (And what a gorgeous knife handle!)
If you want to flatten it more easily, just get it damp, and then lay it out flat.
It's even more delicate when it's wet though, be careful with moving it around.
You have some really cool sheds there. You may want to consider working with the heads of the shed as well. You can see the eye caps, and the head scales are large and look quite interesting.
I love snakes 😁 Congrats on over coming your discomfort! (Everybody's got a phobia. For me it's grasshopper and crickets.)
The project came out beautifully.
I'd love to see some pendants with experiments with different colored back grounds. I liked the black too, but it definitely wasn't right for the knife. 😁
Glad you stuck with it and managed to get more comfortable as you worked. The knife looks great!!
I am terrified of snakes. Ran into a very large one as a kid and that was definitely the fastest I've ever run in my entire life.
As soon as I saw you doing black, I said, that is not going to show up very well. I'm so glad you did it again in the white. Actually, I think clear would have been best that way you can see the creepy snake skin on both sides. Lol!
Kudos to you for having the guts to even open the bag. Let alone touch it.
Actually, after I think about it, the blanks are put back-to-back so you see the skin on both sides. And without the background color, you would see the blade handle that is sandwiched between. So strike that comment. Lol
That's such a clean shed whoevers snake it came from should be proud of their husbandry!!
Love watching your art come to life, try using the snake skin in a chess or checker board
That would be incredible!!
this is the most original idea I've seen on here
I really like this one. The effect of the snake skin on white resin is amazing. I was cringing watching you open the bag with a clear fear of snakes. I can relate. I have a fear of spiders and a love of photography and I used this love of photography to over come to some extent my fear for spiders by taking major close up photos of orb weaving spiders.
So good on you for over comming your fear of snakes and producing something amazing
The video so nice, it's uploaded twice 💚
its so funny as a reptile owner to listen to you sounding vaguely terrified while talking about how sheds work. just a normal part of having pets for me! you can trim out good sections and use resin or cabuchons to make really pretty snake shed jewelry.
I feel like this would be a good opportunity for a gold or silver resin.
I find it helps to mist the skin shed with water and it becomes more pliable and less fragile for handling. It dries out rather quickly so you don't have to worry about moisture in your resin.
You should try out how well snake skin micarta works.
Snakes honestly feel super cool, like smooth but textured. Kind of like tumbled rocks meets leather? I miss my corn snake, she was so sweet and loved to be held
I dunno what changed, but I'm still wondering how well a snake skin would be able to take a dye.
It’s made of the same stuff as fingernails and hair, so probably pretty well!
I’d say pretty good. I have a snakeskin belt that has been dyed blue.
I've never really seen an epoxy and snake skin I like. But the shed skin being a little transparent agent the transparent epoxy really looks neat.
I still have my snake's first ever shed. It's a juvenile ball python who turns 2 in a couple of days. He's only about a foot and a half to 2 feet long. I have him registered as my emotional support animal, allowing me to keep him at my university apartment.
Glad to see you back. April seems like forever ago. Hope all is well with you & your family. This project turned out awesome. Can't wait to see what you do next
I wouldn't mind the sound so much if I didn't know it was SKIN!
Fun tip! You can use dyes and alcohol ink to dye the shed! It turns out very cool and I use them for earrings: )
That looks so good. Very good at your application of that kind of material. I'm so encouraged to not only see you fail, but also succeed. Great work.
I think some jewelry like some bangles and even ear rings and a pendant would be awesome to make with the snake skin, maybe a turquoise and/or mitalic/shimmer translucent pigments would be an awesome touch.
I've seen people make dice with snake skins. They typically dye them with alcohol inks or brush them with mica powder. Really cool affects when cast in resin.
Scaly snake skin in a scale mold genius. Your reaction to the skin gave me a good giggle
I'm very impressed that you overcame a fear to do this. Put me up high or near a clown and I'll just nope the heck outta there so the fact that you were able to handle the shed is very cool.
You probably won't want to ever handle a snake for real so I'm going to describe the sensation because it's kind of awesome. First, they're heavier than they look. The skin and the layer of fat under it make them have this weird combination of soft and squidgy on top of this hard feeling just solid muscle. The skin itself is dry like human skin, very smooth, and ever so slightly textured because of the scales. The closest I can think of is that bit of skin on the sole of your foot - between the heel and ball - where it's all soft but lined.
I once had a biology teacher who handed us pieces of boa skin so we could see how the snake's scales were distributed and such. I glued it into my biology notebook.
Perfect idea t make a knife handle. When you first opened up the skins, I thought you would use all clear resin so that the patterns and color variations would show on both sides, or make a snake skin tumber.
That's snake skins are beautiful. I used to raised red tail boas. Oh my, he was so beautiful too. We (me and my ex's) gave it to one of our friend because we couldn't afford mice or rats. And I remembered my husband came in the den and I was on my computer playing Sims 3 game and he said, "close your eyes." So I did. Then he said, " open your eyes." I said, yep 👍! And went back to my game. I was having a bad mood day as soon as I read the title I got excited and knew you were going to make the hilt. I love it.
Very cool. Snakeskin is so hard to work with but it’s worth it because the patterns. Superb work.
There is many pants and flowers out there with nice geometrical and symmetry paterns that would probably by nice to dipp!
Might look interesting to try different colors behind the snake skin. Or even a gradient of two colors, white and black, red and blue, high contrast. Incredible work!
Peter is a national treasure and he is immensely undervalued as such.
Thanks for another fantastic video!
Just as a friendly FYI, I wouldn't necessarily call your raw castings "knife scales"- in my experience, this term is most commonly reserved for shaped, finished knife handles. For example, my off-the-shelf Boker Kwaiken Mini is the option with "titanium scales". I do, however, agree with "scale blanks" being the most appropriate name for the raw castings you made- I think most any knife maker would know what you're talking about if you referred to them as "scale blanks", "knife scale blanks", or "knife scale material". Thanks again for another great video!
Wow, the end result of this video is incredible as always- what a great decision to switch to a white background layer!
ive got two little mason jars of these (and when i say mason jars, i mean they used to hold pasta sauce). they arent really "skins" rather sheds! its a natural process snakes (and all reptiles) go through, where instead of how mammals "shed" where our dead skin just falls off bit by bit, it comes off all at once or in big chunks. theyre pretty neat!
I really love and feel proud of you overcoming ick feeling to try something new, one thing I suggest is instead of white/black is try a pale colour like blue or green. Another suggestion is to try soaking the skin in a dye, I think it would soak it up very well.