Do you think a taxidermy school would be a waste of money.Should i learn it on my own.
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School should put you way ahead, in half the time, than if you try to learn on your own. But you should also consider joining your state association. The help you get from the members will be unbelievable, and with the Taxidermy.Net web site, you would gain a tremedous amount of knowledge. But you need to be motivated and not afraid to try things, because expierence is a good teacher also, but sometimes you have to repeat them to get them right. Good Luck, rw
Lets look at the animals you will mount, number of people inyour class.
Birds, normally you get to do 2 or 3 birds. How much can you really learn with two or three bird?
Fish you get a trout and a bass normally. Do you think you will learn everything with 2 fish. Small game 1 animal, this will not get your started.
Two gameheads? again not much.
If iwere you I would start out with a few videos tapes from WASCO, Sally's whitetail from A to Z any of the bird tapes and so on. Thes you can watch over and over. Go to your state associations meetings, there are seminars for little money compared to a school. Go to the NTA or IGT meeting this summer!
Now after about a year of soaking up all the info you can find, BOOK some workshops. Yox for gameheads, several good people on birds around. Richard Krane is doing great things with fish taxidermist. If you will do this you will be light years ahead on the average school taxidermist. Comparison stoneage to Star Trek.
Both make great points. What school are you going to and what do they offer in school and after school can make a difference.
As John said try on your own to get a good feel for the industry and if your looking to advance yourself and get to be better then school or one on one training good be the next big thing to go for.
What school generally do is teach you some of the great fundamentals in taxidermy ( atleast the school I went to did and help out the beginners well). If you have some knowldege about the taxidermy this will help you out even more.
During your school you will have a teacher show you on how to do things which is just great but who do you turn to after it's over and your on your own. There will be no one around to assit you on the mistakes your doing and how to correct them. We can only help here by telling you where and if we can help.
With a state association they always have some kind of seminars going on through out the year at their metting or at the shows. The great benifit here is that you can meet master of masters that are the judges most of the time or even a master that will help you out in where you made your mistakes. They hold back no secerts as which many think there is. I have found this out to be true with all the judges I had the pleasure to meet.
It's a hard decision to make but I would try it first on my own and see if I really want to get into this trade and if you do after a year or two and feel then school would the best to get me ahead then do it.
i kind of got burned at my local "taxidermy school". i did not get my money's worth , in the end. thats not to say that they all are bad. it is unfortunate for the schools, though, that there are so many other convenient and economical ways to learn the trade in the new millenium. i agree that a certified quality school will give you a "proper education" in all "general studies", if you can afford the money and the time. it would be in the best interest of these institutions to "raise the bar" on thier curriculums if they want to stay in business, i think. good luck.