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05-08-2021, 10:14 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 102
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Bird work 2021 so far (amateur hobby taxidermist)
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05-08-2021, 12:03 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 7,493
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Not bad
Either you are an awesome photographer or you are off to a good start lol
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05-08-2021, 12:14 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 11,370
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Nice work. Keep after it, your dream will come true!!
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“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”
Thomas Sowell
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05-08-2021, 12:16 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: GP
Posts: 951
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Wow! That’s great work!
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05-08-2021, 12:50 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,032
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Look great! Nice job!
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05-08-2021, 12:51 PM
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: South West Alberta
Posts: 805
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Keep up the great work.
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05-08-2021, 01:34 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Near Edmonton
Posts: 15,049
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You are already doing better work than a lot of the guys doing it for a living. If you can maintain that level of quality there will be a lot of guys looking to you to get work done. Your photography is pretty spectacular too.
Best of luck.
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05-08-2021, 01:40 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Morinville
Posts: 699
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Best of luck , good work
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05-08-2021, 01:43 PM
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: near Calgary
Posts: 6,651
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good start
You definitely have an eye for birds. I notice some feathers dont look fully dry and usually this can be attributed to body oils remaining on the feathers. Not sure who taught you the basic procedures but especially with waterfowl the skin must be degreased (doesnt hurt with upland either) so in addition to a soapy wash I often used white naptha gas (outside in well ventilated space).
Waterfowl can also be tricky in that a layer of fat can often be under connecting tissues against the skin. When I watched World Champion Ken Morrison prepare a skin he delayered the connceting tissue with cuticle scissors until it was all removed and then removed the fat to give him a clean skin to mount on his form. He said if everything was not removed the even small remaining fat would grease burn through the skin and stain the feathers. Leaving the connecting tissue in place (even a bit) makes it very difficult to place the feather tracts in perfect alignment and will also often cause the feather tracts to twist out of place as the tissue under neath dries. Nice work so far
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a hunting we will go!!!!!!
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05-08-2021, 02:48 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 102
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wwbirds
You definitely have an eye for birds. I notice some feathers dont look fully dry and usually this can be attributed to body oils remaining on the feathers. Not sure who taught you the basic procedures but especially with waterfowl the skin must be degreased (doesnt hurt with upland either) so in addition to a soapy wash I often used white naptha gas (outside in well ventilated space).
Waterfowl can also be tricky in that a layer of fat can often be under connecting tissues against the skin. When I watched World Champion Ken Morrison prepare a skin he delayered the connceting tissue with cuticle scissors until it was all removed and then removed the fat to give him a clean skin to mount on his form. He said if everything was not removed the even small remaining fat would grease burn through the skin and stain the feathers. Leaving the connecting tissue in place (even a bit) makes it very difficult to place the feather tracts in perfect alignment and will also often cause the feather tracts to twist out of place as the tissue under neath dries. Nice work so far
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Yeah fleshing is the longest and hardest part to learn. The buffy and goose I used scissors and dawn soap to fleshing and degrease and struggled to get the "poof" to the feathers. The mallard is the most recent and I used a (new to me) fleshing method from world champion matt smith. It had probably 1/8 of an inch of fat I used nail tech scissors to trim down to tge feather butts then a wire wheel to clean it all the membrane between butts. Then about 5 dawn washes with a toothbrush on skin and laundry detergent on feather side. and rinse till clear. Then soak in Coleman fuel. The feathers came out much nicer on the mallard than the goose which I had only used scissors and soap on. The addition of the wire wheel and gas helped a ton on the mallard. Thanks for taking the time to give feedback it means a lot!
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05-08-2021, 04:19 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: AB
Posts: 6,638
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The waterfowl looks great...check out Art of Taxidermy on youtube as he shares his knowledge/trade secrets on bird taxidermy which I find interesting to watch.
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05-08-2021, 04:30 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 102
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whitetail Junkie
The waterfowl looks great...check out Art of Taxidermy on youtube as he shares his knowledge/trade secrets on bird taxidermy which I find interesting to watch.
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100% he is my favorite youtuber !
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05-08-2021, 05:53 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: USA
Posts: 386
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personally, i think your work on spot on. love the grouse mounts.
you should be a busy man very soon!
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05-09-2021, 08:59 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Calgary, AB
Posts: 1,025
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Did that Swainson's I gave you work out ?
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05-09-2021, 09:12 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2021
Location: Strathmore
Posts: 1,392
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Impressive ! keep at er . They all look very good.
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05-09-2021, 10:16 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 154
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I'd say you are well on your way,they all look pretty good to me. Keep at it you will only get better, nice work so far!
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05-09-2021, 10:25 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 401
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Ryan's Got Talent. Nice work.
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05-09-2021, 11:00 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 1,425
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Looks good. Here’s to a rewarding career.
__________________
I get all the news I need in the weather report
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05-09-2021, 06:23 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 102
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FishOutOfWater
Did that Swainson's I gave you work out ?
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Unfortunately that one was so freezerburnt that when I thawed it clumps of head feathers started falling out before I could even skin it. I'm making it into a panel display with the wings/claws/tail like some folks do with turkeys.
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06-10-2021, 09:38 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 11
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Beautiful work, best of luck!
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06-11-2021, 01:47 PM
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Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 414
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Taxidermist
Very nice,best of luck
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06-11-2021, 02:33 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: My House
Posts: 13,463
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Those look really great! Way to go!
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06-11-2021, 02:54 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 3,281
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Those are some great looking birds! If you decide taxidermy isn’t your thing you could probably do photography for a living because those pictures are great.
I took a taxidermy course over 20 years ago because it had always interested me. I was there just long enough to realize that it was something I was never going to excel at. I don’t really have an artistic bone in my body so looking back I don’t know why I thought I’d make a good taxidermist.
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06-11-2021, 05:28 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Calgary
Posts: 3,810
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those look great!
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