Fixin' up a coyote skull

Hey there peeps,

I recently ordered a coyote skull from ebay, which unbeknownst to me, was poorly cleaned, and poorly packed. When I received it, the thing was smelly, greasy, and covered in mold. Also, the jaw was glued shut with hot glue, leaving plastic tendrils everywhere.

 After having my messages ignored by the salesman, I decided to take matters in my own hands and fix it myself.

I started off with a water and dish soap bath, leaving the skull to soak for a couple of days. That got rid of the greasiness. Afterwards, I scrubbed the bones and soaked them in 70% solution of isopropyl alcohol, to help kill the nastiness and deal with the residual smell. I finished by leaving the bones rest for a couple of days in hydrogen peroxide, which whitened the skull, and help dissolve all residual mold and tissue still in the bone.

Once dry, it was a simple matter of gluing the teeth and the two halves of the lower jaw with good ol' elmer's glue, and I was left with a beautiful, squeaky-clean skull to adorn my bookshelves.

Pictures of the skull as I received it after the break. Be warned it's kinda gross.

Why Don't We Taxidermy Humans

The good folks at V Sauce present a very interesting short video in which they explains different ways by which a human corpse could be preserved, and the legal and technical reasons preventing the taxidermy of human beings.

It is a must watch for anyone interested in what happens post death. Also, if you go on youtube, in the description of the videos, there is a cornucopia of links about the different subjects addressed in the video.

Good to pass an hour or two of your time!

On Taxidermy: Concerning Small Mammals

Or: In which the naturalization and preservation of a specimen of Rattus Norvegicus is undertaken.

Whew. Long time no see! Sorry if it seems I have left you behind, with my job at the shoe store and school, I don't have much time to do some crafting. Oh, by the way, if some of you wants to see my lousy progress as a CG artist at school, feel free to take a look here: it's in french, but it's mostly pictures and videos so you shouldn't have any problem understanding.

http://bartdelinterieur.blogspot.com/

Now that this has been taken care of, let's go back to our subject: the process of skinning, preserving and mounting an adult specimen of Rattus Norvegicus, or domestic rat. the whole process will be described with pictures after the jump, but not before since, y'know, rat guts.

The Amazing Feejee Mermaid! (From Borneo.)

Here's a picture of the finished product.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

If you ever try to follow my instructions and make your own mermaid, please let me know! I'd love to see what I managed to inspire!

For those who landed directly on this post, here's links to the whole tutorial:

Part 1: In which we discuss the flaying of the fish
Part 2: In which we discuss the mounting of the skin
Part 3: In preparation for the application of skin
Part 4: In which we add flesh to the beast
Part 5: In which we finish the job

Here's also a link to a tutorial on how to make the manuscript you see on the left of the picture

If you enjoyed this, please let me know!

Cheers

Taxidermy: In which we finish the job.

Hello again.

This time we'll deal with the finishing touches; coloration, antiquing and wall mounting.

First of all, it is important to support the dry mermaid for the painting process.
I used a wire coat hanger which I bent out of shape and slid under its arms.

For painting the body, I mixed a small quantity of paint matching the fish's color; I used burnt umber, burnt sienna, sap green, black, and gold paint to give a slight shimmer to the color.

I then mixed 1 part paint to 3 parts latex, and watered down the mix a bit so it goes on more easily.

Don't worry if the resulting paint is pale, it'll dry much darker. The great thing with this paint is that it won't be uniform; since it's translucent, there will be some natural variation in the color. This is a good thing if you want a realistic paint job. Also, cover the whole fish, not just the body.

More pictures & info after the jump.

Taxidermy: In which we add flesh to the beast

Greetings, one and all! We are getting close, dangerously close, to completing the amazing feejee mermaid. This time, we'll see how one can apply a realistic, strong skin to the upper body to make it look like the dessicated flesh of a mummified corpse.

This part is my favorite. It's fun and messy, and doesn't require much talent nor concentration; it's impossible to make it look bad.

To add flesh and skin to some bone or armature, I like to use a combination of materials to achieve maximum strength and realism. For large areas, it's simply a matter of layering. For highly detailed zones, such as the hands or face, it's almost like sculpting with papier mâché.

Read the full tutorial with pictures after the jump.

Taxidermy: In preparation for the application of skin

This entry will be short. It is simply an update before I start the good ol' "corpsing" process, during which flesh and skin will be applied to the top part of the mermaid.

First of all, once the fish was completely dry, I applied a couple of thin layers of latex to the tail and fins, so that if chipping occurs, the chipped piece won't fall off the fin. After this, many layers of spray varnish or fixative (I used Tresemmé extra strong hairspray) are applied to the whole fish to protect it, since it is quite brittle, prevent the scales from falling, and seal it from humidity.



More after the jump!

Taxidermy: In which we discuss the mounting of the skin

Greetings.

Last time, as you can recall by scrolling down to my last post, we dealt with skinning a fish for the purpose of stuffing and mounting it as a fishing trophy. You may also recall that I clumsily tore out the cheek of the fish, ruining its head. Thus, I cut it off.

The body of the fish still has a purpose, though; I shall use it as the bottom half of a taxidermy gaff representing a mermaid, as, for example, the feejee mermaid made famous by Barnum.

See how I did this after the jump!

Taxidermy: In which we discuss the flaying of the fish

Why, hello there, my tsantsa loving, guitar refinishing, spider web framing honey bunches of oats! (You know you are. My blog's stats can't lie.)

Today, we'll skin & gut a sea-dwelling critter! Yay!

You see, my uncle brought me a beautiful, HUGE red trout specimen, fresh from the waters of Chibougamau, located in the barren, frozen lands of eastern Canada. And my uncle, being a fun, quirky guy like me (ain't I great?), gave it to me. Not so I can stuff my face with it, but more so I can stuff the fish itself.

I'll try to give you step-by-step instructions concerning how I did it., after the jump.

Secret santa can suck it

For the "virtual gift swap" organised by Cobwebs, I was assigned Tala, from Cryptstitch.

My gift to her is the beautiful work of taxidermy pictured above, by one of my favorite artists, Sarina Brewer. This work of art is unique, beautiful, and reminescent of years past. Perfect in my opinion for such an interesting blogger, who shows interest in a wide variety of topics.

Bodies - The Exhibition

Quebec City has the chance this summer to welcome a most interesting and unusual exhibition. Bodies, The Exhibition, is organized by Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc. and features a large number of plastinated, dry and wet preserved human specimens.

As with the famous exhibition Body Worlds by Gunther Von Hagens, Bodies presents the human body as the beautiful and complex machine it is by installing various full bodies and body parts in artistic poses revealing how the body works.

It is as intriguing and strange as it is beautiful, and I had the chance to go take a peek yesterday.

The skeletal, mucular, nervous and vascular systems are all covered, as are sexuality and pregnancy, various diseases, and how medicine can heal, repair and modify the body.

The room presenting the circulatory system is alone worth the visit. On a few models, only the veins and arteries are preserved, and colored a bright red. The room itself is plunged in darkness and these specimens are brightly underlit, giving them the appearance of glowing lace. Absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing.

If such an exhibit takes place near your town, do yourself a favor and go see it, it is well worth the price. Watching pictures on the net or seeing wax or plastic models can't be compared to seeing the real thing!



Bodies - official page