Stone Curlew Taxidermy Refurbish

Earlier this year, the Breckland Team of Natural England came across an antique, cased ‘corncrake’ specimen in a local antique shop.

They were very quick to realise that the specimen definitely was NOT a corncrake, but that of a Stone Curlew. The Eurasian Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) is a bird very close to my heart, and the reason I met my other half! They are a very rare visitor to the UK and I’m lucky enough to live right where their breeding grounds are in East Anglia.

I’m even luckier to get exclusive access to them as I get to tag along with my other half who monitors them in the summer months in and around the Brecks. They are fascinating to watch and are FULL of character with those amazing yellow eyes (thought to have cured jaundice back in the Victorian era).

When I was given the taxidermy specimen, it was in a rather sorry state.

He was on the wonk, and needed some serious TLC. To begin with, I carefully prised open the case and removed the Stonie. I was careful and wore gloves and a dust mask as antique specimens are known to contain harmful arsenic which was a preservation method in those days.

I managed to clean off quite a lot of muck and dust from him, using diluted alcohol solution and a hairdryer to dry off and blow away existing dust.

Secondly, I reconstructed the eye and gave him some eyelids to make him appear less, uh, wired. Paintwork and rewiring was the final stage before cleaning the case.

I decided to make the habitat a bit more realistic and typical of Breckland heath, as well as painting the background of Weeting Heath – one of the Stone Curlew’s breeding grounds where you can get great views of them in the summer.

Before.

After.

Natural England were really happy with the end result and they now take the taxidermy Stone Curlew around with them on their educational and training talks!

Autumn Update!

I’m so sorry for the lack of updates recently!

I have been beyond busy completing existing commissions and also preparing for two exhibitions in the winter.

Alongside this, I have also been rebranding myself as ‘Krys the Creator’, giving my art page a bit more love and attention. I made a little promotional video recently, as people generally like to get to know the person behind the social media accounts!  you can view that here:

I’ve been developing a lot of really cool projects recently, still playing around with my new found medium of wood and resin. It’s SO fun to work with.

It takes a long time to perfect the casting, setting and sanding through all the grits to polish up the resin again, but the results are SO worth it.

I want some show stoppers to take to the exhibitions and I think mixing wood and resin with taxidermy is a marriage made in heaven. Here’s my latest creation, which is awaiting a gorgeous taxidermy jay (my favourite bird) to go on top. Jays hoard and stash acorns and I thought this was an unusual way of illustrating their behaviour and ecology, as well as looking beautiful.

Art Fair East will be the first of the two events I’m exhibiting at. It’s a very prestigious art fair and I’m so lucky and honoured to be a part of it! I’ll be taking a mix of my fine wildlife art and a few select pieces of my ethical taxidermy.

VIP PRIVATE VIEW Thursday 28th November 6pm to 9pm

FAIR OPEN TO PUBLIC Friday 29th November 10.30am to 5.30pm

FAIR OPEN TO PUBLIC Saturday 30th November 10.30am to 6.00pm

FAIR OPEN TO PUBLIC Sunday 1st December 10.30am to 5pm

The second show I’ll be at is the ‘Nightfair Before Christmas’ at the same location in Norwich. I’ll be able to take much more to this event, including art, taxidermy, my needle felting cuties and jewellery.

I’d love to see you there if you can make it! It takes place on the evening of 14th December, 2019.

click on the images to the left for more info.
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