Taxidermy Soft Mount Fox – 2nd Edition!
I’m delighted to have received another taxidermy ‘Soft Mount’ commission!
I have had a lot of enquiries about soft mounts recently, the popularity of them has seemed to of risen as of late.
What exactly is a ‘soft mount’? I hear you cry!
Soft mount taxidermy is where the skin of the animal is processed much the same way as it would be if it were a traditional mount.
The only difference is, that instead of the skin being mounted on to the rigid form (apart from the head that is still traditionally set on to a rigid cast of the skull), it is instead ‘stuffed’ with polyfill (the same stuff teddy bears are filled with!) to give a flexible, posable, floppy and cuddly effect.
Unlike facilities in America, the U.K does not have commercial tanneries (to my knowledge!) which allows taxidermists to send off the raw or ‘green’ pelts after skinning for them to process and be sent back as a flexible, fully cured and tanned pelt, ready for mounting.
This means I have to do every single process myself.
I shall not bore you with the technical details, but over the years, prior to ‘taxidermy-ing’ the skin, I have learned to do the following processes successfully in my workshop at home:
-
Skinning
-
De-fleshing
-
Salting
-
Pickling
-
Shaving
-
Neutralising
-
Tanning
-
Drying & Tumbling
-
Breaking the hide (which turns the skin side of the hide in to a flexible, suede like leather)
As well as hand-making the mannequin forms for the skin to be mounted on to, so a lot more skill is involved than simply just ‘Stuffing’ an animal!
I pride myself in being an ethical taxidermist, so absolutely NONE of the animals I work with are killed for the purpose of taxidermy.Â
This is why my recent client chose to work with me on producing her ethical soft mount British Red Fox – the majority of soft mount fox’s I have seen on the internet are either sourced from fur-farms or hunted and trapped specifically for their fur (both of which I absolutely do not agree with)
She requested different coloured eyes and no armature, so he is extra flexible and cuddly!
I’m gonna miss him when he goes to his new home.
SaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSave
Categories
Archives
- July 2024
- May 2024
- February 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- July 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- October 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- February 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- August 2020
- May 2020
- March 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- October 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- December 2016
- September 2016
- January 2016
- September 2015
- July 2015