iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

That looks so lovely and peaceful. Enjoy every minute!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Ohhh I love them so much! Such tiny, vibrant, cute little things!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Thank you! It’s coming together, slowly 😂

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

The BMW project is not without spidery influence… just in case anyone was concerned. I’m hand stitching gold webs for the interior/upholstery.

A car door card panel with hand stitched spiderweb detailing in gold thread on black vinyl, leant up against a wall with clips holding it in place. Another spiderweb panel in progress sits on the carpet in front of the door card, with a clamp next to it.

Black leather effect vinyl car door cards leaning up against a wooden sideboard, in various stages of completion/modification. The larger ones still have the original fabric, but the smaller one in front has a gold spiderweb stitched on black vinyl inserted into it.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Yeah aureolus is a possibility, but honestly it’s very difficult to tell from a photo without a good look up close, especially when it’s lost several legs. Even when I’m 99% sure of species, I’m loathe to commit to an ID without a proper examination. Spiders are tricky little buggers like that 😂

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Curious what irecord & inat said it was? It’s Philodromus sp., but to say which one for sure would require a closer look… or someone far better versed in Philodromidae than I!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Taxidermy shenanigans from the past couple of months or so… client work, not for sale.

Commission work, pet cotton top tamarins. Mounted on a very beautiful piece of grape wood from the south of France.

My resting bitch face working on remounting a really battered old pedestal mounted zebra skin. Nightmare. His eyes are full of orange handles euro pins.

Two olive baboons in similar relaxed sitting positions, mine on the left and a student’s on the right. I was tasked with mentoring an intern up at the studio. I think she did very well indeed!

Big male olive baboon, recently mounted by me, currently drying and full of pins! He’s gonna be handsome boy.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Hahahaha!! 😂😂😂 Well, good fun is seldom cheap 😎

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Surprisingly decent fuel economy! I think… I can’t be sure my fuel gauge is fully functional at this point 😂😂😂 But seriously, this particular engine isn’t too bad when it’s mapped correctly. Even as it is now it’s done alright!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Well, she’s been mapped for track stuff so currently she growls like an angry bear when she’s idle & screams like a banshee if you even so much as think about the accelerator pedal, but I’ll be getting her remapped soon to tone it down a bit for the road 😂

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

I mean… I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. But I don’t feel quite out of my depth just yet, so I’ll figure it out! 😁🖤 I love the headlights!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Omg thank you 🥹🖤 You know me… gotta keep myself busy or the brain worm gets me 😂 Actually, that reminds me… I amassed yet more nibs and pen paraphernalia a few months ago. I still need to send you pics etc!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

She was a 320i, but she’s got a 3.0l straight six M54B30 from an E46 in her now.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

I have a vision for this car. It’s always evolving, but it’s coming together and I’m so fucking happy! Next up… engine remapping, accelerator pedal and gearshift tweaks. Then hopefully I’ll actually be able to start driving her. I’ve had her three weeks today! Ok fine, one more pic.

Satin black BMW E30 with wide body kit parked on a brick driveway next to a brick wall, with shrubs behind it.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

And here are a few photos of what I’ve been up to in the interim, preparing to get her interior sorted out…

A montage image of a few stages of creating custom door cards… starting with mismatched parts in the top left, then with the handles and pockets being sprayed to match. Quick test fit of one of the door cards in my car, then newly blackened handles and pockets test fitted. Grey OEM carpet now dyed bkack, and an obligatory pic of my car for good measure.

Door card being masked up for pattern making purposes.

Headlining sprayed black, drying on my garage floor,

A sneaky peek at what I’m planning for the interior details. A panel pattern with cobweb design drawn on, a test panel with hand stitched partially finished cobweb on it, plus scissor, needle & thread, and awl in the pic.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

And here are a couple of progress photos plus a before & after.

Freshly sprayed & drying. She’s all masked up, bonnet is popped open but not lifted, she’s all black and a bit glossy still as the paint is wet.

All out back together, now she’s satin black and sexy as fuck. Still in the spray booth having been left to bake for a while.

How she looked before… mostly dark grey with white front fenders/arches & bumper. Parked next to my garage with my Dad’s Z4 M40i in the background.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Last Saturday, proper work commenced on my car. Here’s a selection of images of me preparing it to be painted.

Me, with my hair pulled back and glasses on, using a small hand held belt sander hooked up to a compressor to cut out the holes in my unpainted, white front bumper for my indicators. My two-tone grey & white car is behind me with the bonnet open, BMW engine cover visible, with a box sitting on top of it containing said indicator lights. Scattered about the rest of the image are various car bodyshop implements & vehicles/parts.

Me, hair down, glasses on, covered in dust & crouched in front of my car unscrewing a bolt that holds the kidney grilles in place, in preparation for painting. In the background are a couple of trucks in various states of disassembly. By my feet are tools and folded sanding discs.

Me next to my car which is now fully rubbed down and masked up, ready for painting, parked in the spray booth/oven. I’m rubbing it down with a tack cloth here to get all the remaining dust off prior to spraying.

Rubbing down my front bumper before it all goes in to be sprayed. Spray booth/oven containing my car is behind me.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Hoooo boy… yes, I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. Particularly regarding cognitive dissonance from my own perspective. It’s very challenging… to call oneself an animal lover whilst also keeping animals, as I do. Lots of hypocrisy & justification etc. It’s an interesting topic, for sure.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Aaahhh I love this!! Thank you!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Do you have my idea how much this made me laugh?’ 😂😂😂 I’m so happy to hear that.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Anyway, bye. See y’all in what… six months? Merry Christmas.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Obviously, I’ll never forget Abigail, my El Camino… but this is THE car as far as I’m concerned. I’ve wanted an E30 since I was 10 years old. Specifically a 2 door coupe. I DID THE THING!! I have entered my Bavarian Rectangle Era™️🙏🏽

Sexy lil bitch. My 1989 BMW E30 in her current Frankenstein’s Monster-esque mismatched & rather scruffy state. Graphite paintwork everywhere besides front fenders & bumper, no bonnet badge, no indicators (indicators? On a BMW? Don’t be silly). Parked in a body shop yard full of old banger racers, vans & tow trucks, with a few trees surrounding it. Nice sunny day, sunlight bouncing off the bonnet, blue sky. Perfect. Take it all in because the next time you see her, things will have changed a bit!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Oh, & although it started its life in 1989 (when I was 6 lol) as a 320i, it lost its original engine & gained a frankly stupid 3.0l straight six from an E46 M3 which puts out 228bhp… in the car it was intended for. Fuck knows what I’m getting out of it in a shell that weighs about 28 grams wet.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Anyway, fwiw to anyone who cares; this is a v meaningful project car. I will not be driving it daily (I still can’t quite make myself drive it at all yet… baby steps), I will mostly be restoring/modifying it into the car of my dreams which I will never, ever willingly sell & will be buried in 😂

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Heyyyy! Checking in to say hi, see how you’re all doing, let you know I’m not dead & tell you how delighted I am to see that spiders & chaos reminded some of you of me 😂 Since I last posted, I’ve stuffed countless animals, & done something ridiculous that I’ve been wanting to do for like, 30 years.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Im a couple of days late, but Nowruz Mubarak to all of my friends, Persian, not Persian & everything inbetween. May you find small joys amongst all of the chaos we’re surrounded by 🖤

Me wearing a hoodie from independent Iranian designer, Xodafez, showing the standard of the Sassanian Empire on the front, embroidered in gold. Look it up… chances are you’ve never heard of it. Do I look tired? That’s because I fucking am.

The back of my hoodie from Xodafez, showing a gold embroidered Farbahar- the Zoroastrian emblem symbolising the core beliefs and teachings of the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Persia. I am not a religious person, but I’ve got a fucking lot of feelings about my ancestral homeland & what’s been done to it.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Hello. I’m sorry I’m not very active on here at the moment. Real life is stressful, health isn’t great, just trying to keep busy & keep my brain out of trouble which, frankly, isn’t bloody easy. Anyway, I stuffed a hoopoe. It’s still drying.

A hoopoe taxidermy mount with pins & low-tack tape and clips holding everything in place as it dries. Photographed on a black background and perched on a piece of bare ivy wood on a black base, it is a cinnamon/orange coloured bird with black and white wings & tail, a long, slender, black beak, black legs & an impressive crest of large black-tipped orange feathers. I have given it a praying mantis meal which it holds in its beak. The mantis is one of my pets from about 15 years ago.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

I’ve had to soak the face of the fox cub I did a few months back because one of the eyes got an air bubble in it (enamel paint peeled away from the glass in the inside), so I have to redo that tomorrow too. Busy busy. Happy, though!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Three bird skins I’ve had in the freezer that I’ve been really excited to work on have turned out to be mostly no good. If I get one out of the three of them mounted, it’ll be a miracle. BUT… I did get a lovely bantam rooster prepped for tomorrow! 😁

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Today has been really good, but also annoying. I’ve had a full day back in my workshop for the first time since the start of January which felt incredible, and I got a lot done… but I ran into a couple of challenges & disappointments too.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Komodo dragon replica paint job. I did all of the colour work & details you see here by hand, including hand painting the eyes & finishing them with clear resin. The last image is a comparison between my reference and the painted cast.

Full size, hand painted replica Komodo dragon on an 8ft trestle table.

Closeup of the replica Komodo dragon’s head and neck.

Closeup of the replica Komodo dragon’s eye.

On top is a photo of a real Komodo dragon’s eye, & underneath it is a photo of the replica I painted using the real one as reference.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

They’re really gorgeous little snakes. Super tiny for their age, but I suspect they weren’t ever really cared for with much enthusiasm prior to coming to live with me. Barest minimum to get them by, y’know? I do hope they’ll come round, but if not, I have time & patience for them in abundance 🥰

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

That’s what it’s all about. I am always so glad to hear that my sharing this stuff has helped people gain a bit more confidence with and/or interest in these creatures. Thanks, Charles!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

I’ll be honest with you… I really do not miss having to feed spiderlings and mantis nymphs every day. Hundreds of them. Blowing live flies into individual cups through a modified straw. Daily. Snakes are so much easier 😂

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Thanks for that. I would never take it as anything other than helpful sharing of info, & it’s very much appreciated! I have a lot of experience, sure, but I’m always still learning too, and this species is relatively new to me still! I’ll give it a shot next weekend perhaps & report back 😁

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

You know, I’d never actually thought about fish! The go to in my circles for this sort of thing has always been amphibs, so I always have a frozen frog on hand for scenting pinkies etc. didn’t seem to do much to encourage them tbh, but I may have to see if a guppy or two would elicit any response!

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Anyway, whatever. Here’s a trophy 🏆 if you read all that. That was my incredibly long winded, mostly written for my own benefit way of saying that I had a 100% success rate with feeding them all tonight which has been a difficult task up until recently, so I’m happy 😂 (14/14)

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

I say finally, but I realised I left out Amaru. Mostly because she’s like clockwork, an absolute beast, very reliable feeder & has grown a frankly obscene amount in the year and a half since she came home. (13/?)

Me holding a very small, noodly little brown Baron’s racer snake. In this photo, she was around 3ft long.

The same noodly brown Baron’s racer, but in 17-18 months, she’s reached about 6ft.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Finally, Nanzome. My latest acquisition, my beautiful, stunning, delightful Inca IMG Boa imperator. She smashes food every time I offer it, no trouble at all. She’s a perfect baby angel. (12/?)

A black and gold coloured Boa imperator snake swallowing a frozen/thawed white mouse.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Next up, we have my king snakes. Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli. I was recently informed that I have been looking after them too well and that Micti, my female, is fat. So now, they’re in a diet. Monthly feeds instead of every 2 weeks. We are not amused 😂 (11/?)

A very dull looking Mictecacihuatl, swallowing a mouse in her enclosure. She’s due a shed. Above her is a black and gold Aztec plaque.

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

… they just seem to need a hand figuring out how to start the process as they have zero strike response at alllll. (10/?)

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

… so I think that will probably be a forever thing. I’m fine with that. I will keep them and assist feed them every week for the rest of their lives if I have to. As long as I feel I’m doing them a kindness & not causing them stress. They will eagerly swallow the food eventually… (9/?)

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

… which will have happened as a result of being born in a bag and left in with all that mess until they landed. The lesions are healed and there is no more scale rot, but they absolutely will not feed for themselves. I have to assist both of them. They are now over 2 years old & still tiny… (8/?)

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

This species is notoriously finicky and not much is known about what neonates start out feeding on in the wild. Captive bred babies are started off on pinkies and usually take to strike feeding eventually. Captive born babies are harder. These two have scars from what I assume was scale rot... (7/?)

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Tea Francis @teafrancis.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Now, all I know is what I was told, & that was that they were born in a bag to a wild caught gravid mother who was in transit from her wild home to a future in captivity, which sucks. The babies mostly died, but the ones that survived were taken on by a few people who tried to keep them going. (6/?)

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