08.14.02

Wow, It's been a LONG time, hasn't it? Well, where do I start.. In June I went to the National Taxidermy competition in Missouri, and in July I went to the North Carolina competition! I took a little red squirrel, and he did pretty well! You can read all about that on the Competition page.

Two weeks ago I mounted a pronghorn antelope buck. You can see pictures of it by clicking HERE.
A friend sent me the cape for free because it had alot of unsightly looking broken hairs on the left side. However, I ordered a beautiful McKenzie "sweep" form, where the left side of the form showed less shoulder than the right side. And as a result, the broken hairs hardly even showed at all! It's a beautiful antelope.. fairly large, too. It's neck measured 16" three inches below the ears. I had a little trouble setting the horns and getting the horn sheaths to separate from the cores (a universal problem), but it all worked out in the end! Speaking of those horns.. Once again I did something that made my mom mad! I boiled the antelope horns in the kitchen, on mom's stove top!. Definately a no-no! When I finally pulled the sheathes off the cores, there was all this flesh inside them and WHEW-EEE, did it stink! Of course mom got mad, and she said I'm never to boil anything in her kitchen again. I don't know what I'm going to do the next time I need to boil a skull, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it! LOL

04.13.02


If you're wondering what's been going on with me and taxidermy... well, for one, my taxidermy shop is finished, finally! It took a few weeks to finish it, but now it's up and running and it's working great. It's so nice to have a space all to myself. You can read more about it and see pictures by clicking HERE.

Oh yes... (this is a major thing)... to make a long story short, I was featured on www.taxidermyreference.com as the "Up and coming rising star!!". I won a year membership to the National Taxidermists Association, a year membership to the NC taxidermists association, and the Breakthrough habitat and exhibit manual. I was especially excited about the National membership, which brings me to say that I am probably going to be going to the National competition this June (June 26-30!)!!! It is in Columbia, Missouri, and it's just a taxidermist's dream, so I've heard. There's 50 seminars to attend, and you can enter a mount in the competition, and almost every taxidermy supply company will be there, showcasing their products!! I get excited just thinking about it. Most likely my dad will take me. I will also enter a mount in the competition. I've been thinking about doing a scene with mice in a field.

I also got an airbrush! It is a Paasche H, single action airbrush. I can't use it until I buy myself an air hose and a compressor, but I'm going to get those soon. I can't wait to start airbrushing! Right now I'm going to use it for finishing game heads, but I also want to learn how to paint fish.

03.12.02

Well, it's been almost a month since I last wrote!
I have since gotten several new animals to mount. The most important one was a buck I found as a road kill. He's fairly small (neck measurement 15"). He has just lost his antlers, but a taxidermist gave me a small 4 point rack to use on him. Right now I'm about to tan the cape. I'm really excited to mount this one, because I'm going to fix the problems that I encountered with the last one. I'm going to mount him in a right turn semi sneak with head up (I'll alter the form slightly).
My dad also found me a Mallard drake road kill!

But the most exciting thing that has happened in the last month is... my dad is fixing me up a little taxidermy shop! It's in some attic space that has been wasted until now. The room measures 14' x 6', with a sloped ceiling. It's a cozy little space, but I think it will do just great for now! It still needs to be painted and have the vinyl flooring put down, etc. etc, but it should be done pretty soon. I'm so excited!

02.13.02

Today my dad found me something very unusual in the road.. guinea fowl! He says that there were three of them, side by side, in the middle of the road. That is very puzzling. A car had run over one of them pretty badly, but he brought me home the other two. They're a male and female.. the female has lost a bit of feathers on the back and on one wing, but the male seems very intact. Under his wing I found a small hole where blood was coming out.. I think someone shot them, and threw them in the road! That sounds weird, but finding three guineas side by side in the road is even weirder.

02.07.02

I just completed my deer head today. It turned out great! For a first deer head, at least. (: It took me three afternoons to mount it.
I spent the first day just sanding the form and installing the septum that I made out of a milk jug. The second day, I mounted the deer over the form. I used latex adhesive as a hide paste and ear liner adhesive. It worked fairly well, but was very messy, so I don't think I'll use it next time. And today, I spent the afternoon finishing the deer. This included painting the ears and eyes, texturing, painting, and glossing the nose, sculpting and painting the inside of the nostrils, carding the ears for drying, and brushing the deer all over. Probably the biggest problem I encountered while mounting was having the lower part of the ears "drum" (not sticking to both sides of the earliner). This was probably due to me not trimming the ear liners small enough. Oh well, I'll know next time!

01.30.02

I'm waiting to receive my deer form and supplies from VanDykes. I think it should come tomorrow.
My deer just came out of the pickle bath. I neutralized it, and now it's tanning in EZ-tan. It should be fully tanned by tomorrow afternoon and ready for oiling. Then it will be ready for mounting! I'm really excited and nervous at the same time.
Today I got a small quail to mount. I've got so many specimens right now that it'll just have to wait! I'm also getting a rooster in the mail soon. A nice lady on the internet offered to send it to me free if I would pay shipping. It will be interesting to recreate the comb.. I'll either cast one out of thinned bondo, or rebuild one out of Apoxie Sculpt (most likely the latter).
As of right now, I have:
A doe cape, 5 squirrels, a gray fox, a canada goose, a bufflehead hen, a common scoter drake, a raccoon, two cats, a quail, two deer feet, and soon to be a rooster! :)

01.26.02

I've begun to work on my deer now. I had quite a bit of trouble turning the ears! I didn't realize what I was cutting and did a very large cut in the thin ear skin, but I think it's repairable. Other than that, things are going well now. The cape has been fleshed and put into the pickle, and it is just about ready to tan. I just have to roll the lips and nose first.
I'll be ordering a form, ear liners, eyes, and hide paste from VanDykes shortly. As soon as I finish it, I'll have pics on my site!

01.14.02

I went up to Greensboro to get my specimens two days ago. It turned out to be a very fun and interesting trip! The ducks are a Buffhead (hen) and a Common Scoter (drake). The beak on the Scoter looks really neat. I also got a deer cape!! The deer is a small doe. It's still frozen, so I haven't taken measurements yet. On my way up to Greensboro, I found a long-haired grey cat, too.
I borrowed a lot of magazines, like "Breakthrough" and "Taxidermy Today". That's enough reading to keep me busy for a LONG time! I'm going to learn so much from them.
I'm eager to get started on one of the specimens, although I can't decide which. I think I'm going to do the deer first.

I finished mounting my cottontail rabbit! It turned out pretty well, for a first. I've got pictures of it posted in the Rabbit section.

01.07.02

This weekend I am going to visit a taxidermist up in Greensboro, NC, and I'll get to take a tour of his shop! And the best part about it is that he is going to give me some specimens to work with -- a fox, a canada goose, and some ducks! I am so excited. I have been looking through catalogs at the body forms and deciding what poses I am going to mount them in. Since I am a beginner and do not know how to make a good base, I think I will mount the fox lying on it's side, so it can be sat anywhere without needing a base (that seems more versatile, anyway). And I think I will practice on the ducks before I try the canada goose, to get a feel for mounting birds.. that goose will be a beautiful mount, and I surely don't want to mess it up. I will probably start by mounting a duck in a standing position, and after I've done that I'll try one in an open-winged flying position. I'd prefer to wrap excelsior bodies for the birds, but if that doesn't seem to work well for the ducks, I'll just spend a little bit of money and buy a body form for the canada goose.

01.06.02

I have been playing around with alginate and plaster today, since I just recieved my order from VanDykes.. it's quite interesting stuff. I mix up the alginate powder with water to form a mayonnaise-like creme, and then I apply to it whatever I am wanting to cast, and it gels up in three minutes. My first try didn't turn out well .. I tried casting a squirrel head (without the skin on), and when I went to pull off the alginate, it stuck and tore down the middle. I later found out that it was because the head was wet, and alginate only works on dry objects. So then I tried casting a foam squirrel head that I had bought, and it works liked a wonder! The alginate slipped straight off, I mixed up the plaster and poured it in, and waited 45 minutes. Then I peeled off the alginate, and there it was.. an exact replica! This brings some great ideas to my mind - I could have a lot of fun with this! I also casted my finger just for fun, and it turned out really well. I painted it a flesh color, and it looks quite lifelike.

The only thing I don't like about plaster is that it's chalky and breaks easily. I think that someday I'll start casting with bondo and fiberglass resin instead.

01.04.02

Right now I have a lot of animals to mount. My freezer is getting rather full, and I have some more on the way! I currently have a cottontail rabbit, a raccoon, and three squirrels in my freezer. The cottontail has some damage to the back legs, so I think I am going to make it into a pedestal mount.
The raccoon seems to have a lot of damage to the head, so I am probably just going to keep the tail as a decoration, and I will use the pelt to test out my new de-hairing kit on.

I already have plans for how I am going to mount the squirrels. I saw a very cute mount in a catalog that I am going to try to duplicate.. it is a squirrel sitting atop a fence post, holding a nut. I'll mount one that way. I think I'll mount another one in a climbing down position, and perhaps another one sitting on all fours. One thing is for sure -- I'm going to have enough squirrels to try out a lot of poses! I should be receiving two gray squirrels soon (along with some deer feet that I am very excited about!!) in the mail, from a generous taxidermist. That will make a total of five squirrels.  At least one of the squirrels will have an open mouth. A few days ago I took the skull of one and boiled it on the stove until the flesh fell off. Then I built up the gums and roof of the mouth with some Apoxie Sculpt (great stuff!), and made an artificial tongue out of the sculpt as well. When it dried in 24 hours, I painted it the appropriate colors, and then gave it a coat of "Plasti-kote" spray to give it a wet look. I also built up the muscles of the head with some Dakota modeling clay, and set the eyes in with Apoxie Sculpt. I think it will look quite realistic when mounted!