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!
