How do you get the puffed up look in a ducks feathers, as in a mandarin ducks neck.
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but hopefully someone with more experience will reply as well...
Here is a link to a Mandarin that I just sold on-line, copy and paste if you want to take a look but I consider myself new to this also, only been doing this for a little over a year..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3685388340&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT
I don't think it's the actual "neck" that you want to puff up, you are either referring to the breast area or the crest on the head..
The breast area can be filled with some type of filler like cotton, poly fil or I use excelsior, I like excelsior the best, It doesn't bunch up like the poly fil and after mounting, you can poke a pinning needle right thru the skin and move it around if you need to..
As far as the head crest, some people use clay to rebuild the head area ..I use caulking injected thru the ear and if you want to try something really cool..after injecting, hit the crest with an airbrush...NO paint mind you, just AIR.. the feathers will lift and fall right into place..very neat trick
Good Luck with your Mandarin
PS
If anyone wants to let me know what they think of my duck, this is the first time I've placed a link to a pic here..My spouse is a licensed taxidermist who does this full time, to me it's more of a hobby and I only do birds..
Thanks
TJ
Well put TJ......
I totaly use air.......6hp shopvac dries/fluffs and places pretty well...I put my skins on damp/towel and then blowdry once I have the skin on the form and up and ready for final positioning/ detailing..I have the vac tube knecked down so I have the flat skinny attatchment on ..Now I am able to work the feathers in rows this realy puts em nicely into the feather groups...
I start on the head and work to the tail.I get close to the head/bill and its way cool to watch the duck come back outa the limpsoggy skin as it fluffs totaly...Getting any feather totaly clean and fluffed is the trick to smooth. I pin in a few place's then hit em with the air.The feather groups seem to have a shrink memory..A little pull alingment with a tweezer and its there..
The trick is to research and try new....
Look'n outa different window helps also....
I looked at the Mandarin you just sold, and your address as being near Pittsburgh. You also said your spouse was a licensed taxidermist - not you yourself. If you sold the duck that you mounted are you licenced in PA?
If you check out our Ebay ME page, you will see that our shop is in Chester WV, right across the PA line..We live in PA. and can be in Ohio or WV in about 15 minutes.. My spouse is PA licensed, we are BOTH federally licensed, and we are BOTH on the business license that is required in the state of WV to do taxidermy, no testing there like here in PA..so I am licensed to do work in WV where all transactions take place as we don't even have a shop in PA, I guess with everything that we had to go thru with the testing involved in PA, I sometimes don't think of myself as the "REAL" taxidermist, if that makes any sense..our officer with the Game Commision knows about our shop in WV and that I help my spouse with the birds and he said next time we renew our state permit here (in PA) I can go on it as a subpermittee..however it's not really necessary as all the work I do, I do in WV, where the Pa. Game Commission holds no authority..
The locator for Ebay asks you to pick the nearest town to you, and Pittsburgh would be the nearest town to us from our home or our shop.. Ok..?
I want to thank everyone for the help I have received here, infact, I think I posted some questions here about this same bird when I mounted it..
TJ
on your spouses' permit.
I am not entirely sure how rigid the enforcement of the PA permit is. I understand that there is a business permit for West Virginia, but as residents of Pennsylvania, technically you will report your income as Pennsylvania residents. Now if it is illegal to perform taxidermy for another in the state of Pennsylvania, you are not doing so - unless someone from Pennsylvania crosses over to your shop in West Virginia where you mount it and he takes it back to PA. Your spouse has the appropriate permit, but you do not. Therefore, if you are listed as an apprentice/worker/assistant on your spouses' permit you should be covered.
The laws are a bit unclear here. What if as a Pennsylvania resident a taxidermist only perform taxidermy for out of state taxidermists. Do they need a permit? What if, as in this case, taxidermy is performed for only out of state people, and the tasks of taxidermy is done out of state - perhaps even at a hunting camp or on vacation. Interstate commerce should not be hampered by PA laws as that is federal juristiction. Seems like I did bring this up with Paul C. once and he said the taxidermist must be licensed.
By the way TJ, nice looking mandarin though I could not blow it up sufficently to see the fine details to do much comment on it.
for the nice comment on my bird..my work is coming along ok, I still have more questions at this point than answers though :) so I only rarely reply to someone's questions on this forum..I have gotten better though and still hope to make alot of improvement with time..I took lessons with Paul a couple months ago and my work has greatly improved since then..He is a great instructor and I would recommend him to anyone looking to improve their work..
As far as the whole Pa - WV issue licensing issue, I know there are others that work outside the state as well, I appreciate your concern but I think I'm good to go..as I said, our main officer knows about our business there and that I do birds...
Well, enough of this, that poor guy up there that originally posted, is probably waiting for more replies on his neck questions..
Hopefully see you at the next PA show, Were you the one selling the Breakthrough catalogs and had alot of info on taxidermy this past show..? If so, I remember you..
TJ
Yes I was selling some old magazines that were duplicates to my library - Breakthrough, Taxidermy Today, Modern Taxidermist, Wide World of Taxidermy, Taxidermy Review, Taxidermist News, etc. plus some duplicate books. I met a lot of people but didn't get out from behind the table much to socialize. It was the first time I ever had a table but I did give a few presentations at the PA meetings back probably 10 years ago now.
Heuker, about your neck. One thing you must remember in replacing the living neck is that after death there is a log of reduction in the neck diameter. While alive there is a certain amount of blood and fluid filling many voids and tugor in the muscles. After death this fluid leaves, and combined with the non-erection of the feather bases (i.e. the feathers being held upright), the neck shrinks significantly in view. What those above said is correct in trying to re-stand up the feathers with air or back brushing. However, an additional point that I would suggest is to make the neck a good 20% larger in diameter that what you see after skinning the bird. There is flesh on the skin that must be replaced on the mannikin, plus the shrinkage. The other suggestion I would make is to taxi the neck skin forward. Many beginners pull the neck out and don't shift the neck forward. The feathers build on each other and make the neck seem longer. If you make the neck a slight bit shorter than life, OR, make sure the neck is bent in a good S curve that also helps.
Yes I was selling some old magazines that were duplicates to my library - Breakthrough, Taxidermy Today, Modern Taxidermist, Wide World of Taxidermy, Taxidermy Review, Taxidermist News, etc. plus some duplicate books. I met a lot of people but didn't get out from behind the table much to socialize. It was the first time I ever had a table but I did give a few presentations at the PA meetings back probably 10 years ago now.
Heuker, about your neck. One thing you must remember in replacing the living neck is that after death there is a log of reduction in the neck diameter. While alive there is a certain amount of blood and fluid filling many voids and tugor in the muscles. After death this fluid leaves, and combined with the non-erection of the feather bases (i.e. the feathers being held upright), the neck shrinks significantly in view. What those above said is correct in trying to re-stand up the feathers with air or back brushing. However, an additional point that I would suggest is to make the neck a good 20% larger in diameter that what you see after skinning the bird. There is flesh on the skin that must be replaced on the mannikin, plus the shrinkage. The other suggestion I would make is to taxi the neck skin forward. Many beginners pull the neck out and don't shift the neck forward. The feathers build on each other and make the neck seem longer. If you make the neck a slight bit shorter than life, OR, make sure the neck is bent in a good S curve that also helps.