Taxidermy Beginner : Advice ?

Rent videos from supply companies such as McKenzies. Join you state taxidermy and attend seminars or conventions...when the Covid mess is over. Ask questions here when you have a question. There are also online training seminars, but I'm not familiar with which are the best for beginners.

 

Don't spend huge amounts of money on supplies and equipment until you are sure this is what you want to do. It happens often that folks new find out taxidermy isn't what they thought it would be or, a lot more work. And of course, do what joeym said! Best of luck to you!

Vic

 

My advice is if you are truly wanting to get into taxidermy, get some hands on training. I personally can’t learn crap from watching videos, I have to touch it with my hands to truly understand it. It’s a leap of faith but my advice is to go to a good school.

 

It is my opinion that school training would be more valuable to you if you first had a working knowledge of the subject. Get a few basic books and video's and jump in and make some mistakes and solve a few problems on your own and then if you still want to keep going I think a good instructor would mean a lot more to you.

 

I understand your point on this but on the other side of the coin...Once you learn using (possibly) inefficient methods it will be harder to change later. Taxidermy isn't quite the same but I see it all the time as a mathematics teacher. Just my thoughts and opinions on the matter.

 

Yes, I was just speaking from my experience but everybody is different.

 

True!

 

Lots of good answers. I do taxidermy as a hobby for the last 20 years. I feel like i am the eternal beginner. I have done may be 30 birds, same with squirrels and bobcats, deer head, a bear head to give you an idea.
Rent or buy videos of something that you would like to mount and watch it a few times then get a specimen. See if you like doing it. You may like to do birds vs mammals . For instance i have never done a fish. School would be fine if you want to be a professional taxidermist later, but if you choose one field of taxidermy over another let s say birds go to a specific class. Why go to a school that includes game head and fish if you are never going to mount one.

 

The beauty of getting book or renting or even buying a video is that you can say whoa, that's more complicated than I want to do or you can say that looks fun, I like it and the cost was minimal.

 

I've read through all the comments and suggestions on this thread. All of it makes sense and sounds like good advice. I know absolutely nothing about taxidermy except for what I've watched in videos and read about. I'm attending a 1 week whitetail course in October. My ultimate goal is to do taxidermy for the next 5 years and after I retire, get more involved when I have experience and trust in my work. I have a question regarding work space, for future planning purposes. I understand many dynamics are involved and the answer probably is just a simple one. But if I were to build a shop, what would be the minimum recommended size to have a comfortable working environment?

 

1000 square feet with elevated ceiling

 

I had a 20X40 in my head so I was close. You say elevated, 10ft? 12ft?

 

As high as possible

 

Always go bigger , you say 20x40 go 30 x 60 , 14 high at the wall then cathedral ceiling. You can thank me later . You need work , storage and show room areas . Trust me

 

When I built mine, 24 X36 was more room than I needed. At least it was for about 6 months. After that, I really wished that I would have done a 40 X 60 and it needed to be 60 X 100. I ended up with sheds and other out buildings as well as a "lean-to" attached to the shop. I had a fleshing and skinning shed, a stink shed for skulls and such, a tannery shed, and a salting room. Inside the shop I had a freezer room that was also my bird room, a wood shop, a show room, an office and a taxidermy room. It got cramped real quick.

You need to have an overhead door. Mine was a 9 foot wide garage door on the outside wall and also a double door 12 feet tall from the taxidermy room to the room with the garage door.