I have been interested in taxidermy for many years. I have looked at enrolling in a taxidermy school here in Colorado, but the only school is in Canyon City which is several hundred miles from Denver. I have noticed that there are several videotapes for beginners, but I think i would be more beneficial to learn from a taxidermist in person. I was wondering if there were any taxidermists in Colorado (surrounding Denver area) that would be interested in teaching/apprentice work. I would be willing to pay for your time.
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if you can get someone to take you up on it. You might wanna try to do a couple mounts on your own first. That way you'll be a few steps ahead of the game and you'll get a lot more out of your training. Most professional taxidermist are to busy teach a green horn but somebody might be a little more likely to take you in if you get some experience under your belt.
They are very informative. Invest some money in the Breakthrough manuals
also very informative. I started with a correspondence course and went o the manuals
and videos and have done very well commercially and in competition.
If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.
Todd B
Russ, if at all possible go to some schools, join your state association and compete. Do not be shy or afraid to plunge into the competion arena. There are several schools and many workshops out there. Videos and the Breakthrough manuals are money well spent. Read the archives right here. You might hook up with a local taxidermist during their busy season. A lot of them can use a hand skinning and you will pick up a lot about the field as well as what it takes to run a business. Last advice.... start collecting and USE good reference material. Good luck to ya
Dave
Going to school would be your best choice. The time it takes for a person to learn from videos and reading books can be time consuming. Just think after you read a book or see a video and you start working you run into a makor problem, whose going to help you out? Sure we're all here to help but having a hands on person who is trained in teaching is a greater asset than having any book, video or this forum. They can sit down with you and teach you the proper and latest techniques in this field.
On the other side you can learn from books and video as well. It just takes longer to do. Good luck on what ever method you choose.
russ i am pretty new to this too i have been doing waterfowl for about 2 years now..i learned the basics from a video, but i am lucky enough to be a member of my state taxidermy assosciation and all of the local members (about 5 within 20 miles of me) and more than glad to spend a few minutes on the phone with me for questions or problems..you can do it by video but it sure is nice to have someone there for the unexpected..
Get your feet wet a bit first. Then, do your homework. Find the best taxidermist in your area for what you want to get into (birds, mammals, fish or all of the above) and give him or her a call. Manytimes, if the price is right, someone will be willing to listen.
The gentleman I trained under (whom I just happened to pick out of a phonebook - gosh was I stupid! Only later did I realize that I happened to pick one of the best fish guys around...) was swamped at the time (2 years backlog). And, was not taking on any new students (He had been training students for years). After shooting the stuff with him for awhile on the phone, he finally decided to at least meet with me. We hit it off pretty good and eventually got to talking about training (I had never done ANY taxidermy) After finding out his fee ($5K) for full training I told him that I couldn't afford it anyways. To make a long story short, through several meetings with him I came to find out there happened to be another student intersted in training too. We eventually worked things out and both trained under him in more of a seminar format (and worked around his schedule) for half the original price.
I guess what I'm saying is, if the price is right most anybody will make time for you. I only wish (as Bill stated) that I had gotten my feet wet first as it took awhile to get going. Luckily, my mentor and I have become good friends and we get together regularly to discuss taxidermy and critique my work and answer questions. And, now it only costs me a six-pak!
Find the best though - this is critical. You need to take your time and look at folks' work. Narrow it down to a couple of taxidermists if possible. If you have that luxury to have several good folks in your area (I did not have that luxury - again I was extremely lucky!) You will learn so much more when you train under one of the best and you will develop good habits. I make the analogy with sports - wrestling. I thought I was a pretty decent wrestler until I went to Iowa and got my butt kicked! I was third string - division three. A very humbling experience! But, by practicing with the big boys, I got better. I learned the little idiosincrecies (sp?) that I had never experienced before. And you know what? I got so much better and eventually started the very next year. I would have never reached that level w/o practicing with the best....
One duck is almost the same as another, get a tape on mallards, one on deer one on trout. Join your state association, these are your cheapest and easiest routes to learning. NTA in just a few weeks!