Australian jeweler Julia DeVille is inspired by "memento mori" from past centuries, and her pieces involve taxidermy and/or cast bones, as in this striking silver talon ring. Not practical but stunning!
Inspired by Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Nora Sturges' fantastical paintings of the travels and travails of a modern-day Marco Polo are simultaneously funny, disturbing, and exquisite.