I have had a very comical last two days, or at least I found it funny, and I thought I'd share... maybe someone can learn from my mistakes.
Yesterday I set to work in the garage, I planned on doing a bunch of bird taxidermy weekend. The plan was to cast the heads, and bodies and then prep the skin. I laid out the skins to thaw, and a dug out all my molding and casting stuff. The night before I had made a silicone mold of a pheasant head. I removed the head,then poured the first cast... worked on a pheasant body mold, prepped it for foam, made a mold of this , cast that. After a bit I had 3 pheasant heads, a chukar mold setting up, a vulture head and a bunch of sparrow heads, as I use that mold for excess casting material if I mix too much.
I mix the urethane foam up and poured it into the fiberglass mold to make the first of three bodies I needed. Put a clamp on it and turned around. Next thing I know, the clamp in flying around the room, bouncing of the walls like something you see in cartoons. It had broke in two, and now foam is expanding all out of my mold. I didn't have another clamp within reach so I used my hand, getting foam all over them, yuck. It soon became apparent my grip wasn't enough to clamp the mold tight and the mess continued to expand with the foam. None of my clamps would hold, or weren't big enough for the mold. Fine, I set the thing on the floor and stood on it, and waited five minutes while I scraped my hands clean and cursed the fact I didn't have a vise around.
When the foam was set, I left it to harden and noticed I only had 2 pheasant heads on the counter, where'd the third go? On the other side of the garage, there was a crunching sound. Darn, the dogs were inside to keep out of the bad weather and one had stolen and eaten the bird head. Great, I had to cast another one, this time I left it up out of canine reach.
After a break, I de-molded the first bird body and cast another. Without a clamp I was left standing on the mold again. I worked on fleshing a bird skin while I waited. Now, when I was making the final bird body, I apparently had under estimated the amount of foam I had. The mold was only part way full to the point it needed to be, and I was out of liquid to mix; when it expanded, the foam wouldn't fill the mold. Great! I scrambled around, and grabbed a "Can of Foam", pondered but a moment what kind of explosion may occur by mixing the 2 types of foam, then squirted the mold half full and closed it. Even with my full weight standing on it, the mold expanding open and spilled out onto the floor. I had such a lovely mess by the time I was finished. The rest of the day went smoothly and I ended it with all the supplies I needed for mounting the birds, and all the skins ready to be washed and mounted.
This morning I got out a skin and washed it well. Now, I haven't ever done alot of bird taxidermy, so I never invested in a tumbler. After washing the skins, I'd fill a pan with borax and gentlely work bird skins in it, then finish drying them with a hari dryer set on cool. Looking at doing 3 pheasants, a chukar, a vulture, possible a hawk (I work for a museum, I have permits) and maybe a couple of my ducks or a goose in the next couple of days, I wasn't in the mood to hand dry all the feathers and skins. Hey, necessity is the mother of invention isn't it?
I grabbed a clean 5 gallon bucket, screwed three 2x2 inside to make a little baffle, took off the handle, and filled it half full with borax and cob grit. Threw a wet pheasant into the mix, sealed the bucket up and gave the bucket to my 4 year old brother. Talk about entertainment, after 15 minutes of him rolling it around the house I took the bucket back and had a nicely tumbled bird skin, I'm brillant. The 4 yr old wants to know when he can play with the bucket again, lol.
The moral of the story: never turn your back on the dogs in the studio, unless its your trained dog that knows better. Always have plenty of clamps, and wear gloves if your working with form. Use only half the amount of "Can of Foam" stuff as its twice as strong as liquid mixed foam (though not as good a quality); combining the two foams does not seem to cause leathal fumes or an explosion (I'm still alive thus far). It's probably a hell of alot easier to plan ahead and buy all your supplies from a supply company instead of making them all.
Molding materials: x amount of $$$
Casting materials: x amount of $$$
Making all your supplies yourself: priceless, and cheaper maybe but a pain in the arse!
Oh, and when your fresh out of a tumbler, a bucket and a 4 yr old will do the trick.
I'm going back to mounting my birds. Think I'll need to take a vacation after the learning curve I had the last 2 days. Howl at ya'll later!
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Remember the story about a cart and a horse or something like that?
Boy Wolfie, why would you start that many birds at one time? Just mounting the vulture to museum quality would take me about 10 hours. Also, in my opinion, casting a skun body, without sculpting modifications, does not result in an accurate manikan. You would be better to by Tony's manikans for the common stuff and to carve your own for anything else. Did Bill cover birds in your training? You need to visit some quality bird taxidermists. Dave Luke is the only one I know that would get out 5 birds in one day - but then he could wrap up all five bodies in half an hour or so.
Long time no howl! Don't worry, I'm not rushing my birds just doing a number of them over the next week or so, one to three a day depending on what species and who its for, until I get tired of feathers, hehe. Had a bit of a wild start with all the casting though, Murphy's law? The bodies I make are for some commercial gamebirds, I don't take short cuts on museum stuff. Those molds are made from altered and detailed cast bodies, not just the carcass.
The vulture I wrapped a body for. It will probably take me all of next weekend to get it done right, most likely longer, more than 10 hours I predict, lol. I still have to alter the cast head and sculpt in the details lost in molding, paint it, set the eyes and so on. Museum work is defineatly a labor of love isn't it?
As far as Bill, we covered molding and casting, bobcats and large life-size taxidermy (that darn Aoudad!). Never did work with birds, he looked over a pheasant I did and gave me some pointers, that's about it. At the moment, I'm out of touch with him.
I live an hour or so from a really good bird taxi who also does some museum work. One of these days I'll drive over to his place and get a little bird training when its convenient for both of us. I've been too busy or unable to get transportation to his place thus far.
Well, back to work for me.
Tony! I do try to put the horse in front of the cart most of the time. Making supplies is just a hazardous occupation sometimes.;)
You guys need to chill out, do you really think it was necessary to ridicule him on his proficiency at taxidermy when he was just telling a funny story? dont you have some work you could be doing other than wasting everyones time?
chill, pat
Its okay Patrick, thanks for backing me up though. The post as you say was just a funny about a whacky day, and mostly regarding commercial stuff, not my museum work.
Taxidermologist and I are buddies in the museum field, and the quality is way different than what I do for the exotic rancher I work for. Taxidermologist knows me, but we haven't talked in a good while. I mentioned the vulture I plan to do, and he just wanted to make sure I was doing it right, not taking shortcuts, and not getting in over my head. The ridicule of his was friendly in nature.
I'll howl at ya'll later.
Pat, I can't believe you interpreted that as ridicule. Besides, Amethyst is a girls name last time I checked. Sheesh, when I criticze someone, they will know it full well, then you guys can give me a George reaction.