A couple of weeks ago I had a customer pick his deer head, and he asked if I could clean a mount for him. A few days later he dropped of an awesome 171" Typical 6x6 Whitetail. Here's the bad news. The white throat patch is on the left side of the deer's neck, there is about an inch of dried lip skin between the upper and lower jaw, (the part that you can see through shows the lip slot was never cut), and the pupil in the eye is in a vertical position. This was not a first attempt, there's a tag on the back with the customers name and the Job #35. It's guys like this that make it hard on the one's that take pride in there work. Thanks for your time.
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Chris unfortunately your right, but until this trade is somehow regulated and/or requires some sort of apptitude test, we all have to get used to it! In my state any hack can pay $10.00 and get a Taxidermy License, they do it everyday. Marc R.
here in pa. you must take a test, and you are critiqued on work that you do, many on here bitch that its a commie type practice, well at least it forces a person to know what deer looks like
The customer is the only true test you have. If you fail that test then your doom is part of your own pre-destination. Do it right...and try to make it better next time. Acceptable and exceptional sound like partners but the spelling(and facts) are plain to see. Are you 20/20? Jeff F.
My post was not intended towards you Chris. Jeff F.
#35 makes it a beginner's 35th mount. So as experience grows so does quality.
If you do good work and are easy to find customers will come to you but you still have advertise.
You speak as one who's "experiance" speaks for itself. Why do you hide behind a $$$?
With today's videos, books and information available, there is no excuse to make a bad mount, unless you are unethical in all you do. A guy could pass 10 taxidermy test, go home, let their quality slide, and pump out crap, ( girls wouldn't do this ) thinking that the customer will never know if the eye is in wrong or not, and cut all the corner's they want, but they passed the test. Passing a taxidermy test does not guarantee that future work will be up to snuff. It's human nature to cut corners and sluff off when nobody is looking. Unethical people cut corners and make bad decisions.
And after all of the test are studied for and passed, that information we studied for is shelved and forgotten, and a less strict method is used, and there is no accounting to the consequences to the compromises used by slob taxidermist.
He has done 35 deer and dont know the pupil is horizonal not vertical to me it dont sound like quality is coming with experience it sounds like a fast way to make a buck!
I don't believe the number of deer or years doing taxidermy are the only things that count on quality. There are 2 different taxidermist around me one claims to have over 25 yrs and the other over 15, but I've seen their stuff and if you do it wrong for 15 or 25 yrs its still wrong, but hey that is just my opinion.
I just love taxidermists that do jobs like that. Every year I get customers that bring in deer to be remounted due to other taxidermist's incompetedence. I make extra money selling them capes so I don't complain. If customers would just do a little reserch before hiring a taxidermist, they would save themselves plenty of greef and money.
sounds like your job is getting easyer.
the coustomer must have learned his lesson because he brought you a deer.
It is great that you take pride in your work but sad that others do not.stop fussing about others, you don't pay there bills & they don't pay yours.
Keep up the good work !
Being a 2nd year "professional" I take pride in my work however if I were to ask my wife how my latest whitetail mount looks, she would say, "don't ask me, how would I know what a good job looks like". I find it amazing as to what a customer thinks a "good job" is ... I myself had numerous mounts done over the years by other good taxidermists (in my opinion) and yet I am amazed when I look at the differences between different shops . . . escpecially when it comes to fish, fins, and paint jobs. Personally, I ask myself this question before a job leaves my place, "would I be happy with this if it was my animal and I was the customer?" Perfection is in the eyes of the beholder and the Lord God Almight only!