How do you attach flying birds to the single strands of dry grass or the decorative welded branches.I had a problem at the last world show with my Gadwal not secured enought to the base. Thanks
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I have done it a number of ways. How you attach depends on where you want the attachment to contact the bird. We fabricate most habitat supports out of tungsten or other hard steels. At times the attachment or supports are formed from wax wire and cast in bronze. We have fabricated attachments by casting feet and other parts like single tail feathers or primary feathers in bronze which is brazed to metal foliage. Wires brazed at the feather butt are then mounted in the wing or tail by fixturing to the bird.
Wires or fixturing posts are brazed or welded to the support structure for attachment to the bird. Normally two posts are employed for rigidity. Sometimes resin feet with wire armatures are cast, or metal feet are made, finished with firing colors, and then encapsulated in clear resins for support. (Jumping teal, etc)
Thin supports are sometimes cantilevered by brazing two or three thin reeds or stems together to provide what appears to be frail supports for some works.
The only thing we compete for is contract bidding, and I don't know the rules for competition. Normally fixturing is planned during the design phase of our projects. In-house designs are simple, outside contract designs are sometimes done by studios other than our own, and those assignments can be challenging.
Even though our exhibits are normally encased and never handled, our work is warranteed, and to that end, sturdy supports are always a goal. Each project is approached first by solving those technical features before any taxidermy is begun.
We receive a lot of emails from taxidermists who often mount the bird prior to planning the attachment. Building a display mount with minimal attachment and maximum use of negative space requires a plan, a blueprint, prior to undertaking the effort. For instance if a bronze wing feather is used, it has to look real when finished, and must be brazed to an attachment wire which is inserted into the bird during mounting. Heat sinks are used when welding or brazing the faux feather to the support,if done after mounting, or before mounting if practical.
As I stated, I have no clue about what is kosher and what is not in the World Competition, nor do I care where our projects are concerned. No one outside of staff ever handles our work, although we do have a standard for rigidity. A lot of exhibit components are shipped a long way from here, or transported to site for installation. To that end, they are built to withstnd pretty rough handling at times. (I keep a cleaver on my art table to use on folks who handle our finished mounts.)
We sometimes fabricate mounting supports for commercial taxidermists, but the process is seldom cheap, even for simple projects.