ace tilton ratcliff
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mortuaryreport.bsky.social
ace tilton ratcliff
@mortuaryreport.bsky.social
1.4K followers 420 following 1.6K posts
genderqueer disabled metalsmith, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. former mortician. hEhlers-danlos et al. living in florida. i post pics of spiders

https://linktr.ee/mortuaryreport
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mortuaryreport.bsky.social
carefully controlled studio chaos
a 12x12 black canvas sits in the middle of a workspace. there are iguana bones everywhere, loose and divided into plastic cups. bones are carefully arranged on the canvas in an organic design. glue, brushes, tweezers, and other tools surrounded the canvas. butterfly wings rest on brown paper in a shallow pan
November 17, 2025 at 2:22 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
can anyone help me ID this guy? we are in south florida and he was abandoned in a yard. trying to figure out proper husbandry and lifespan to see if i can take care of him or if he needs to be homed with someone else
November 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
4ish hours later, five bags done out of 25 total, one frog found
a tattooed white left hand holds a small green lego piece in the shape of a frog. the person is taking the photo looking down at their hand and lap. they’re wearing grey sweats. they’re kneeling on beige tile. a lego set is in construction on the floor in front of them. the pieces are organized neatly.
November 8, 2025 at 6:10 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
GO DODGERS!!!!! (me typing furiously to my friends who can’t watch live and scaring the fuck out of my dogs)
November 2, 2025 at 4:27 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
SO this lady who lives miles away from me in a different neighborhood filed a complaint w/the city that’s now potentially going to get my little free library & little free pantry shut down unless we can amend code to specifically protect site amenities as such pls sign my petition

c.org/DRrMJb6Czq
a screen shot of an email that says: Hi Ace, There are 1600 food pantries in Palm Beach County. There are meals on wheels. There are a lot of resources. I don’t need crackheads outside at 2 AM getting food from your little pantry and making all kinds of noise on the corner and people dropping off unappropriate food items That bring rats and roaches into the neighborhood. Food pantries make sure all their food is not expired and is up to code. Also people dropping off all kinds of broken items and things like that. Go work at a soup kitchen if you want to help people or do something else and stop putting Black Lives Matter signs and defund the police all lives matter and we need the police we all need order in this world. Not to be mean or condescending, but that little food pantry it needs to go. Amy Sent from my iPhone
October 31, 2025 at 1:09 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
i got to go to the north carolina mountains for a week long metalworking retreat on a scholarship! finished two pendants while i was there—montana agate, jade, rutilated quartz, sapphires, & champagne diamonds set in 22k gold and continuum silver #SWBKart
a white right hand holds two pendants with grass in the background. the pendants have oval agates as the main stone, clear with shades of brown and black speckles. a smattering of yellow and light green sapphires are tube set around the pendants. below each agate is an angular stone: one pendant is green jade, the other is a clear quartz with black striped rutilations within it
October 5, 2025 at 1:10 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
studio this week. bones from a dead iguana that i found & water macerated plus butterfly wings found in the garden #SWBKart
a square piece of dark paper. in the center is a portion of iguana jaw with teeth attached. green embroidery thread radiates out from a hole in the center, leading to a ragged butterfly wing and a slew of small bones that look like slingshots, arranged in a circular shape and graduated in size. a rib curves along the inside, its edge painted metallic silver. two more wings are tucked where it lifts off of the paper. embroidery thread is stitched along and around the piece a close up of the bones, showing the careful stitch work of the embroidery thread
September 26, 2025 at 2:59 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
i just wanted to post silly cookies and now i’m getting unwarranted baking advice i’m almost 40 pls just let me be with my cookie croutons
a white person with a tattooed left hand holds up a baking rack. the background is a stove and a cookie pan. the cookies have fallen down through the rack to rest against the pan bottom. as a result, they’re now baked halfway through the rack. the person is holding the rack up sideways and the cookies are all stuck to it
September 18, 2025 at 7:10 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
o no
a tray of cookies inside the oven. there is a wire tray atop the metal trap. the cookies have sunk down through the wire so now the wire tray is halfway through them as they rest on the flat bottom
September 18, 2025 at 3:25 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
i looked cute yesterday so of course it poured all day and getting a nice photo was next to impossible
a white femme person stands outside in front of a tree. they have red lipstick on and a small cats eye for makeup. their bangs are rolled into a bumper and their hair is pulled up behind that, with a red bandana tied around everything. they’re holding a rat terrier wearing a do not pet collar sign. they’re smiling. the terrier looks perpetually worried a white femme person smiles from the driver’s side of a car. their red lipstick matches the red bandana tied around their head. their bangs are rolled into a bumper. they have on a tan shirt and a grey black sweater. they’re smiling and they have gold hoop earrings on
August 25, 2025 at 9:23 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
lucky for me this one will be easier to photograph
a cartoon cactus flower in pre bloom. it’s a large, dimensional star, if all the arms were pulled in to one central spot. it is green with very light striations. it sits in a blue pot
August 24, 2025 at 3:17 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
here have a big fat juicy stinky carrion cactus flower. mf’er bloomed sideways, super weird this year
a gigantic star shaped flower the size of my hand with long fuzzy hairs and tight mauve purple stripes against a creamish yellow background. the angle is weird, it’s surrounded by green cacti
August 24, 2025 at 3:11 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
my favorite stray from the clowder, hideaway. he finally invited me to pet him for the first time a couple of weeks ago. only took a year of earning his trust!
a beautiful tabby cat with green eyes and a tipped ear lays against tile with a background of green plants
August 22, 2025 at 12:03 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
i don’t know how to handle the stress & anxiety of the news that a fascist dictator is strong arming control of a blue-voting, 42% black city & knowing that so many people are going to have their lives hideously disrupted or ended

so here is july, one of the neutered strays, giving me attitude
a black cat with a white belly and a white splash on his chest leans his back against a white stucco wall. he is black as a void and he’s sitting with his belly up and his front legs spread. his green eyes are narrowed. he looks goofy as hell
August 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
here’s a necklace i made earlier this year. bronze and enamel. lmk if you’re interested in a version for yourself. always fun to represent *checks notes* a dead art when out existing in the real world
a rectangular necklace pendant that has been enameled like a white piece of writing paper, with a hole punched on the left and horizontal stripes of blue beside a single vertical red stripe. the word “fuck,” written in cursive, stretches across the pendant. it hangs from a silver chain with two o rings. the background is a piece of writing paper a golden hour shot of me wearing the fuck necklac. you can see my hair and another chain i’ve paired it with. i’m wearing a plain white shirt. the cursive “fuck” casts a shadow against the paper pendant, and the bronze metal of the cursive word is bright and bold in the sunshine
August 8, 2025 at 10:21 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
a new very suspicious cat has tentatively joined the feral clowder. he does not know that the same rules apply at my house as do with the fae: you should never eat food offered in my land, because in exchange i will take something valuable. in this case, his balls are mine
a very suspicious looking grey tomcat with golden eyes and light stripes (but not a tabby) eyes me over a bowl of dry cat food
August 8, 2025 at 2:14 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
here, have some eastern lubber grasshoppers fuckin’ in the everglades last week. colloquially they’re also known as graveyard grasshoppers or cheval-diable (devil’s horse.) they can really fuck up some crops. these are the locusts your old testament warned you about
two extremely large grasshoppers rest on the side of a metal post for a sign. the larger is the base for the smaller. they’re brightly colored, shades of greenish yellow, big eyes and big legged. in the background is a blurry view of water and foliage
August 5, 2025 at 12:02 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
tbh i shoulda just stayed in bed after that nap but instead i got up and worked on a commission which was the right call but also i’m tired now #art #WIP #chronicpain
a close up of an unfinished pencil drawing sitting on a worn wooden desk. a sheet of plain cornflower blue paper sits haphazardly beneath the white paper of the sketch. on the left side is a human skeleton from the shoulder blade up to the skull, roughly bifurcated. on the right, flipped so the image starts at the top of the paper instead of the bottom, is a skeleton from the front, showing the skull and a portion of the collarbone a workspace: worn wooden desk; a pencil sketch of skeletal anatomy on white paper with blue paper beneath; anatomy study cards spread across the space; an open copy of gray’s anatomy flipped to the scapula; the resting feet of a small plastic skeleton visible beside the pencil and eraser
July 31, 2025 at 7:04 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
here, the hoya decipulae is blooming right now too, have something pretty AND weird
a closeup of hoya blooms. they look sort of like… the skirt part of a badminton shuttles. they’re white, with five thin white petals that have gaps of space between them but they reconnect in the center. they’re tucked in between leaves of other plants, all green
July 30, 2025 at 5:17 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
cleaned out the bone buckets today. everybody say hi to whimsy, the best cat in the universe. glad his skull gets to join his sister’s skull back in the house soon
a small tupperware container sits outside in the sunshine on concrete. on the left is part of a teal towel. inside the tupperware is hydrogen peroxide and a small cat skull, floating, the jaw separate and the atlas and axis below a beautiful grey kitty with bright green eyes and short fur crouches on a wooden surface. he’s wearing a rainbow jester collar to scare away birds. he looks like trouble
July 29, 2025 at 11:33 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
we’ve had like ten+ successful molts this month PLUS the hoya multiflora put out a giant bloom, dioone edule gave me a SECOND leaf this year, and the monkey tail cactus gave me its first ever bloom. what is going on?! lots of growth energy at spiderbell hollow this time of year!
a burst of bizarre hoya flowers, taken from the side. they are white, with a head a bit like a dragon, leading back to light yellow horns or star points. their center is a deep purple black. they look animalistic. there are more than twelve of them on one peduncle. they are attached to long thin green stems that lead back to one center stem that is thicker a coral, honeysuckle colored cactus bloom with a yellow and purple stamen and anther. it has many petals, long and thinnish, radiating out. it’s attached to a strange long cactus covered in funny white fur a tattooed white hand gently holds up a still unfurling leaf with a long stem and a delicate, palm-like frond with sharp looking edges. the whole thing is still soft from its newness and a verdant vibrant green
July 27, 2025 at 8:41 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
my hapalopus formosus molted tonight too! made a tiny little cave for the molt
mat. the molt is discarded on the left and his legs are still so soft and delicate from the molt. it is SUCH a vulnerable time for them
a much smaller tarantula with an orange and black butt curls up inside a small self excavated cave in its enclosure. its position offers a perfect side view of the molting experience
July 27, 2025 at 8:32 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
it took a whole frickin year but my grammastola pulchra FINALLY MOLTED y’all that booty has been in premolt for weeeeeksss see this is why i’m a night owl with night owl pets
a dark black beautiful fuzzy tarantula lays curled up next to the discarded molt of its recent shed exoskeleton. the molt is much browner than the black tarantula. the tarantula’s legs are tucked in tight and its skin is still translucent from the molt a further back view shows the brown molt, a discarded caddy wampus inside out skeleton still resting lightly against the black body of the juvenile black tarantula
July 27, 2025 at 8:29 AM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
this is apocalyptic as fuck. affirm pay later plans for fucking eye exams. fuck this version of america’s
a visionworks mailer inviting you to get an eye exam for the start of the new year. at the top is the affirm logo with a “see now. pay later. simple.” text beside it
July 16, 2025 at 6:49 PM
mortuaryreport.bsky.social
one of my favorites parts of the day is feeding the clowder of feral cats who have (almost all) been neutered by our hand. i’m glad when they show up alive. i’m going to get that last’s one’s balls. it’s nice to just sit with them while they eat. feel the sun warmed bricks. let my mind quiet.
a tabby lounges in the grass, green eyed partially closed, completely serene. his ear is notched and his name is hideaway a grey and white cat eats dry food from a black takeout container next to a car and recycling bins. he has white whiskers and is all elbows. his name is jazz a suspicious black void of a cat with bright green eyes waits, ready to dart off at a moment’s notice. his name is july. in the background, the white and black legs of his sister princessx are barely visible beneath a car
July 9, 2025 at 11:07 PM