I have heard of mounting small mammals without using a standard form, but using some sort of filler consisting of sawdust and borax and a wire body skeleton. Does anyone know of any video training or articles on this method? If anyone does this could you tell me the make up of the material used? I assume that you use the skull, clean and fill with epoxy? Thanks for any help.
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the first to ask WHY? When forms are easy to use and easy to get. The amount of trouble that doing that way would made.
But to each their own.
Kim
Bubba's Taxidermy
The material you're refering to is called Excelsior or Wood Wool.
It is an old packing material. You would wrap it tight around the main wire which runs from the tail through the head and wrap packing string around till it is tight and hard. When this stuff is wrapped tight enough it is as dense as the foam forms of today. You would then biuld your legs in the same way. Much like mounting a bird.
The skull has to be boiled and preserved then rebuilt with your choice of epoxy or clay. Epoxy wasn't around when I started so I always used non hardening clay. Once that's done it's pretty much like mounting with a form. In fact it alows you to bend and pose your mount after it is mounted.
I still use this method on all but the biggest birds. I can wrap a body in about 5 minutes for about $.50 worth of Excelsior and it will fit perfectly, no alterations.
Sometimes we have to look to the past to move forward.
Jim F.
Squirrels were routinely filled with sand. The skull was used, eyes put in and the mouth sewn shut. Then through a tubed cut, sand was poured in. This allowed you to pose the animal any way you'd like The trick was not using too much sand or you'd end up with a round squirrel. I've seen sawdust and borax as well, but I agree with Kim. We did it that way because there was nothing better. That's not the case now and why would I EVER want to go backwards?
I use to mount fish and snakes with the sand fill method.
I'm glad that's over with.
I do like to make as much of my own things as possible. I carve my own Fish bodies, cast my own heads and jaw sets.
As long as the material cost comes out considerably less than the "store bought" stuff that's the way I go. Plus I've yet to find the commercial stuff as good what I can make.
Maybe I wouldn't have to work 16 hour days if I wasn't so stubborn.
Jim F.
While it's true that forms are easy to get,and relatively inexpensive,not all animals fit a particular form!Why spend money on a form , Then , Cut it and alter to fit? George,I dont consider offering my customers Custom poses for thier mounts,as oposed to "cookie cutter forms" , "going backwards"!My customers seem to agree with me.I charge more for custom work, but my customers are willing to pay more for something unique.There isn't a day goes bye here, when some one doesn't have a question about form alterations. They run into a problem with a skin not fitting a factory form ,and they hit a wall , because they dont understand the anatomy of that particular animal,or how to overcome too large/ small a form.There is nothing wrong with the new technology,But i believe ,that you need a good foundation in basic anatomy to take full advatage of the new and improved methods."Old school" has it's place. As long as i'm breathing, "old Bastard taxidermy" WILL carry on.But, as Kim said"to each thier own". Peace!
I'm with you, brother! I guess we are ,two of the few left ,that A. know how, and B. still practice the craft!"old school" lives on!
I use this method often. I also use the real skull 80 percent of the time too. I like to make my mounts custom too. You get a lot more variety for your customers to choose from and your not restricted by the boundaries you put on yourself when you stick to buying forms. In my opinion, It's a lot more fun and creative to use this method. It takes a lot of skill to shape and pose the animal yourself than it may seem too. I say you go yo your library and browse around for some good books on this method Dave and give it a shot.It takes a decent amount of practice to produce a nice looking mount but I'm sure you'll do fine. Good Luck!
I didn't meen to exclude anyone.I Couldn't have said it better!Obviously (spelling),Great minds think alike.It's rare that i hear of anyone still practiceing "old school" on Life sized mounts, with the exeption of bird bodies any more. My best to you. Hats off! Ed
You can talk all that "cookie cutter" BS you want, but when it's all said and done and when the smoke's cleared, you still have to swallow that the form I use was sculpted from a single work and it's made from materials I can modify. Pray tell me what you think you can do by custom making your manikin versus what I can do with one I buy from suppliers? That "cookie cutter" crap is what keeps this industry so divided. It's that "me better than you" mentality. Never once do any of you bother to see and accept that 90% of all taxidermy work in America is done by people who AREN'T using your methods. That certainly doesn't make you wrong, but it does make you susceptible to playing that ego game. Ken Walker did a seminar for my state association where he mounted a mountain grizzly on a form he carved out of flotation billets right in front of us. Had he wanted, he could have certainly added that pose to his line of forms that he markets. I know Fred Vandenberg sculpts each deer he mounts for compeition and then destroys the mold, but he COULD market it if he wanted. Looking down your nose at people who buy ready to use forms is really looking down on sculpters who are at the very worse as talented as you are. My customers get exactly what they want from me, so push comes to shove, I guess we all end up being lumped together as "taxidermists". I, too, have some top end customers who are readily willing to pay for that extra work, but they don't make up the majority of my clientele. I have to cater to each one individually and their own levels. I think I'm not that much different from the rest of that 90%.
L.O.L.