I’m back from my short break away now and feeling refreshed, ready and full of inspiration after being amongst so much wildlife!

I’ve just added some new products to the store, including these 5″ x 7″ Glossy Wildlife Photography prints.

I took these lovely pictures on a photography course at Suffolk Owl Sanctuary, it was a wonderful day out and I enjoyed seeing the birds of prey up close, gave me an excellent insight and reference images for future projects.

If they go down well, I may print some more of my wildlife photos in the future.

You can check out some of my photography adventures by clicking the button below, mostly taken in and around rural Suffolk & Norfolk in East Anglia.

Flickr Stream

£1 from each of the prints sold will be donated to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Shop Prints

I will be away on holiday from the 22-26th May, 2017.

Orders will still be taken but will not be processed or shipped out until the  29th May.
Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience!

-Krysten

Taxidermy Barn Owl Installation

I recently completed a lovely Barn Owl Commission, you can read up about this project and what a nightmare I had with it in a previous blog post here

This morning, I went round to my customers house to install the Barn Owl on an incredible piece of oak branch they found and installed in their house!

I was SO pleased that she fit on there perfectly, because normally I would mount the taxidermy on to the piece of wood I intend to use for it’s permanent perch to make sure the feet are positioned nicely on it. So I was pleasantly surprised when it all worked out, especially with the addition of the little vole I added under her talons.

But in this case I had to do a bit of guess work and temporarily perch her on an old piece of wood I had until I installed her on the oak branch. She looks right at you as you walk in the door, take a look!

Happy Customers=Happy Krysten!

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‘Vulture Culture’ T-shirts

A few years ago, I had my own T-shirt brand called ‘Awfully Good Apparel’ where I applied my own illustrations and designs onto various apparel. It was mostly an extension of a college project and I thought it could go somewhere, but as I had uni and other commitments, unfortunately didn’t have the time to pursue it.

I loved getting the T-shirts back from the printers and sending them off all over the world!

As the I intentionally set up the ‘Taxidermy Co.’ brand as a platform to sell all kinds of natural history related items, not just taxidermy, I am toying with the idea of illustrating a few designs to get printed on T-shirts in the near future.

The designs will be inspired by the natural world and will appeal (hopefully) to nature lovers that appreciate all things living (and dead!). You can expect designs that feature skeletal structures, botanical elements and all that is flora and fauna.

I’m working on a design right now, featuring a griffin vulture that I’m drawing by hand using a dot work technique – VERY tedious but the end result will be worth it. Depending on how things turn out, I may start a kickstarter campaign, I’ve never done one before so it should be exciting!

Let me know what you think so far, feel free to follow my progress on Instagram and other social media!

@taxidermyco

– Krysten

Taxidermy Peacock

I feel so honoured and very fortunate to work with such a majestic, beautiful bird! He’s a black shouldered peacock (male peafowl).

This project took an awful lot of work, but the end result is so worth it and I’m very happy with how he has turned out.

It’s the biggest bird I’ve worked on to date and whilst it’s much the same process as any other bird, the long train was what made this project different to anything I have done.

After I skinned the bird, I had to remove the train and under tail coverts in order to clean them properly as the many quills of the train are incredibly fatty and it just made the whole process a lot easier than having the rest of the skin attached, plus there’s less risk of spoiling the rest of the skin whilst cleaning it!

After I salted the train for 24 hours to train the moisture out, I thoroughly washed and cleaned in between each quill to remove all of the fat then layered on the preservation paste. I then cut out a chunk of my foam mannequin to set the train and tail coverts separately on it with fast setting car body filler.

Once that was all set, I mounted the rest of the skin like I would any other bird, attached him to the antique wooden base then re-attached the train and tail to complete – viola!

All in all, he’s taken approx. 20 hours so far. I have to spend another hour or so doing the final finishing touches to his face then he’s all done!

This magnificent specimen will be for sale once he’s complete, but if you want to get in early to make reservations please get in touch: [email protected]

Thanks!

-Krysten

P.S no part of this bird was wasted, the meat was donated to a local ferret keeper and hotel, it went down a treat apparently!

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