Taxidermy Talk

the sign up link is at the top just below the baboons elbow, in the orange bar

 

Both those guys are correct crab.. I put another sign-up link in the menu bar at the top for those that might have trouble locating it.

Robert

 

I'm sorry, but ALL these new taxidermy sites tend to be mutual admiration societies. I see the same things on most of them. Someone posts a picture of their mount and everyone gets all moist. Very few (compared to the whole number posted) look good but NO ONE dares to tell that person his mount sucks. The majority of advice given there is from experienced professionals.

Few of you have any idea what the original Taxidermy.Net brought to this industry. What you see here is but a shell of the magnimity it once held. In the beginning, Bill Yox and I advocated that sex, religion and politics be censored. Then a rabid liberal, Cecil Baird, cried long enough that Ken relented. There was no pictures or video capability but the homepage had an orange "search" icon where any previous subject that had been discussed could be quickly and easily cross matched.

But the the "I love me" pictures began and to point out inaccuracies made you "bitter" and mean. Guys like Ken Walker, Stephan Savides, Matt Thompson, Dennis Harris, Michael Schlabach, Harry Whitehead, Fred Vanderburgh, Rick Krane, and dozens others simply lost interest and went away. I kow Frank Kotula is still here and I'm not sure if John Creagar is but for the most part, those who made this site have moved on.

I feel sad that most of you missed the Golden Age of Taxidermy.

 

Fakebook and Twittler is when the exodus began. It wasnt people posting their ugly work.

 

No it didn't. That was simply an easy excuse. 13point is exactly right about the 20 people but for a far different reason. Taxidermists simply don't play well together. Those of us who love it have a difficult time admitting the golden age has past. Museums disbanded their taxidermy sections almost 20 years ago. Animal Artistry is about the last of the large enterprises left that only do taxidermy, yet their turnover of people is astronomical. Most shops are sole proprietor while a few contract work rather than hire employees. Many larger shops are family affairs.
The internet was a haven for taxidermy hacks and wannabes. The gained quick fame by extolling their shifty methods on videos that hungry beginners flocked to and many became disheartened. Top that with a sudden interest in European mounts. Environuts began "Catch and Release" which brought about reproductions. Reproductions brought about mass production imports. Traditional "full service" taxidery has been dead for decades.

Some years back when I sat on the board of the NTA, I researched the scant sources we had and the best I could find was that there are about 80,000 people filing taxes as taxidermists. Of those, nearly 30 000 quit each year but are usually replaced by newcomers.

If you read Melissa Malcolm's book. "Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy", she chronic0les how this industry is littered with groups with high expectations but limited lifespans. Some will say I'm a naysayer, but I'm a pragmatist. Most of us who love this, die trying to find that pot of gold but they know, in reality, it's simply love what they do.

 

i always wondered why taxidermists charged so much just to a shoulder mount or a small squirrel...so i got into it as a hobby.
it was like getting slapped in the back of the head, that little light came on so fast, i immediately understood and wondered why they didnt charge more...lol
i stopped when the children came along because i worked out of the basement and garage. the fumes in the house just were not healthy for us or children. i won a few awards and almost got bumped into the master category with my first ever bird mount, a hanging dead grouse. 1st place best of category as an amatuer put me in the pro division where it took a first place and lost best of category by 2 points that same year, 1993 i took best all around taxidermist at the PTA convention, you had to enter a mount in 4 categories and each mount had to take a ribbon.....i was the only one at the convention that year that entered in all 4 categories...LOL but i won ..HA, i heard they changed the rules after that

i agree, taxidermy has drastically changed over the last 30 plus years and i dont think its coming back. way to much info being shared and a ton of "hobbyists" are popping up. i suppose its a good thing but its hard as heck to make a good living and work 40 hours a week doing taxidermy. you men and women still doing it have my respect and those of you who paved the way and made it the art form it was and is today have my respect, thanks and gratitude...GREAT JOB !!

 

Wow congrats Msestak. Great story -- thanks for sharing it.

Robert

 

Hey Everyone!!

If you find yourself bored this weekend www.taxidermy-talk.com just started their Guide Contest on Oct 1st complete with a little spending money as first and second prize.

Check it out!

Robert

 

None of the message boards are what they were.

The traditional and primitive bowhunting sites I lurk at, are shells are what they were.

Magazine sales have been in decline for years.

Facebook and you-tube have made a major impact on all that.

 

I have tried a couple times to register but I must be doing something wrong. Just now I tried again and I got an error code: Error code: 1F176/3 What does this mean?

If you are interested in making the site a true taxidermy site don't have current events board! I don't go on that anywhere as much as I used to. Too much drama! I simply don't have the time for it any longer. My life, family and students are much more important than current events that are hashed to death!

 

George, my work isn't the greatest and I know it. I am not offended if someone says it needs work. How the hell is someone supposed to get better if they are not told their work sucks and what needs to be done to fix it?!

My wife always tells me my work looks great but is it because she doesn't know any better or because she is backing my hobby? Who knows! She had been honest a couple times and told me the faces on my mammals are jacked up as she called it.

I have posted on here to get help and I got it from great people, including you George. Even if you don't know it you have helped me through helping others when you have answered their questions! You are right though, this site used to be better but times change and not always for the better.

 

I think Current Events serves as a way to keep the "drama" and politics out of the taxidermy threads/topics. I have been on sites that don't have a Current Events page and a no politics policy. The mods have their hands full policing the topics because politics keep creeping in.

 

I just did it with no problems, EXCEPT, the confirmation email went to my junk mail. Good thing I check that also, because I can't trust my computer to know the difference as it has shown me time and time again.

 

The emails I get from this website now have Robert Bakers name as the sender so something is positively not right with this. Unless this is something you allowed Robert.

 

NOT gearing this reply towards you Sea Wolf. Just trying to put peoples minds at ease. I also live in Colorado not Panama. lol

Before we go into conspiracy theories.. A simple WHOIS query will bring up the registrants name for taxidermy-talk.com (which in this case is privacy protected) so my phone number, addess and whatnot is not all over the net. Since I registered the domain through NameCheap.Com, they replace their own information as the registrar.

The admin is me. However, I am simply another person, just like you and I put my pants on the same way everyone else does in the morning that is why there is a taxidermy-talk Admin account and my own account on there. The admin account is only used for site adminstration and not posting everyday content.

As for using different passwords on there than everywhere else. As a general rule of thumb you should never use the same password on more than one site anyways.

I try not to talk about taxi-talk in taxi.net because I'm on both sites and respect this site as much as the other. I have many friends here as I do on t-talk and do not want the owners of taxi.net thinking I'm trying to take over because that has never been the case. It's just an alternative -- nothing more. I am also not affiliated with taxidermytalk.com -- I unfortunately did not know that existed when I registered the name taxidermy-talk.com.

Robert


whois:taxidermy-talk.com
Name Value
Registrar NameCheap, Inc.
Name Server NS1.GIOWM1118.SITEGROUND.BIZ
Name Server NS2.GIOWM1118.SITEGROUND.BIZ
Name Value
Domain Name TAXIDERMY-TALK.COM
Registry Domain ID 2558390404_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server whois.namecheap.com
Registrar URL http://www.namecheap.com
Updated Date 2020-09-08T16:55:28Z
Creation Date 2020-09-08T02:14:31Z
Registry Expiry Date 2021-09-08T02:14:31Z
Registrar NameCheap, Inc.
Registrar IANA ID 1068
Registrar Abuse Contact Email abuse@namecheap.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone +1.6613102107
Domain Status clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Name Server NS1.GIOWM1118.SITEGROUND.BIZ
Name Server NS2.GIOWM1118.SITEGROUND.BIZ
DNSSEC unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form https://www.icann.org/wicf/
Last update of whois database 2020-11-29T01:37:34Z

 

Thanks Robert. I did dig further and found that the phone numbers listed belong to Whoisguard. They also protect scammer sites so that would explain the connection.

 

No worries SW. You were just looking out for everyone (including myself) -- I appreciate that. =)

Robert