Quote Originally Posted by Xrayted View Post

I've done some really weird stuff for the nieces and nephews, but I never went so far as to petrify a critter. (could be cool tho... hmmm)
I used to keep tarantulas. When they grow, they periodically flip over on their backs, wriggle for an hour & molt their old skin and then expand to their new size. The cool thing is that the old skin looks EXACTLY like the spider itself- complete with colors and furry hair, shiny fangs, eye lense covers and everything! If you get the old limp discarded skin before it gets completely dry, you can steam it with a tea kettle so it will be pliable and then you can sort of pose it realistically, propping the parts up with match boxes and toothpicks. Then when it dries it stays in that position and you can remove the props.
I did this a couple of times, and made a scary pose with uplifted front legs and extended fangs of my really large Peruvian Pink-Toe (Morticia) and mounted it in a plexiglass box I made for it and gave it to my nephew years ago. I doubt if he has it anymore. Nobody could believe it was not the actual spider! It was so cool.
I had to give up my 2 beautiful tarantulas when I moved to a smaller place eventually, but I donated them to the entomology department of Cornell University, where my daughter was then getting her entomology degree (like a good mother, I taught her stuff firsthand about bugs and snakes and such from toddlerhood).