Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Adventures in Taxidermy

Don't worry, there are no graphic or bloody photos in this post!

As you guys know I have a little collection of vintage taxidermy here at camp Say It Ain't So. I just love it! I think it reminds me of campy dioramas at the local science museum when I was a kid. I had toyed with the idea of taking a taxidermy class at my local oddities shop, but the class I was signed up for got cancelled. My best friend Crystal, and my new friend Ashley both took classes though. Ashley got some rats that died from a woman who sells feeders to feed snakes and offered to bring them over so they could teach me how to do it. Here are some notes from my foray into taxidermy. I know most people aren't into this stuff, so it won't hurt my feelings if you skip this post. 
The rats were frozen and were pretty pee covered so first order of business was to wash and dry them. I  thought this might make me sad because I used to have pet rats and loved them but it really wasn't. These guys were destined for pet food, and once they died they would have been thrown away. Look at how cute mine is!
 Crystal got a black one.
 Ashely's was the cutest! This was the first time we've hung out in person, which might seem a little weird. Haha! But we met on instagram because of the taxidermy classes!
 Ok, so the first order of business is to separate the skin from the body. It took a REALLY long time for us to get through it. Hours and hours. I'm pretty squeamish and had to take a few breaks and go outside but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I'm not going to lie, it was really gruesome. I actually had nightmares because of it. I'm not going to go into the process, but if you are interested, we used this website for tips, along with what they learned in the classes. I'm not going to link the classes they took because the instructor is apparently pretty awful, but I've heard great things about Afterlife Anatomy, who also travels around teaching classes!
 You also have to create a little false body to go inside the rat. The eyes are just regular black beads. It's weird how realistic they look once they are in the skin.
 Here we are working hard! As you can see it is now dark! We worked from about 4 until almost midnight! With a little break for tacos.
Ashely demonstrating how were were all feeling about 6 hours in. Haha. So over it. But wanted to finish! Look at how cute her rat looks!
 Really, the worst part was all the skinning. I gave up once we got to the head and Ashley finished it for me. Bless her. Stuffing it and posing it wasn't bad at all. 
You wire the arms and legs into place, and try to make the tail look ok. I'm not sure how well I did that part, we'll see.
 Here is my little gal all done. She looks ok for my first (and probably only) try I think. We'll see how sh looks in a few weeks. Crystal took mine home so it could cure in her basement, away from curious cats.
All in all it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it. I know it seems weird for a vegan, but I really like taxidermy and feel like it honors the animal in a way. Do I expect everyone to agree with me? No. But that's ok. I hope you found it interesting at least!

17 comments:

  1. Holy Mother!! I'm floored! Speechless. LOL
    Ummmm....Good Job???
    Erica :)

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  2. I love taxidermy but I don't think I could ever do it; I get freaked out getting a turkey ready for thanksgiving!! Good for you guys!

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    1. oh my gosh my mom made me clean on the turkey one year and didn't tell me i was pulling out the neck and it FREAKED ME OUT!

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  3. I think it is pretty kick ass. I hope she comes out cute!

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  4. This reminds me of Barry's hobby of constructing mouse dioramas in the movie Dinner for Schmucks. Can't wait to see how your little mouse turns out.

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    1. i really love those dioramas in that movie! i can't imagine how hard it is to make those mice look realistic, they are so SMALL!

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  5. I have never seen a blog post on taxidermy. Interesting for sure....not sure I want to go there and try it, but kudos to you for doing it. Another thing learned in blogland!

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  6. Its definitely interesting and I do get that whole campy science diorama aspect but I doubt I could ever do it, particularly with rats. While I don't mind pet rats and lab rats I am terrified of subway rats here in NYC so the whole rat aspect would freak me out. I think its great that you tried it though

    retro rover

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    1. Oh man, when we were in new york for our honeymoon i was so excited to see rats on the subway! hahah. i'm sure if i saw them all the time i would not be into it at all!

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    2. I remember when I visited New York I was bummed to not see rats, as you always see them in the subway in TV and movies. I was giddy when I finally saw one skittering on the subway tracks.

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  7. I found a Possum that was injured once. I tried to nurse it back to health, but it died the next day. I contemplated trying my hand at taxidermy, but the skinning part was what basically deterred me. I almost have a phobia of things with no skin, but I definitely commend you for having the stomach.

    I agree with you about taxidermy honoring the animal. A poor little feeder rat will now be remembered forever!

    All in all, I think you rat looks great! Especially for you first attempt. I have seen much worse displayed in museums. He looks incredibly lifelike.

    I used to keep pet rats as well. For a short time I even dabbled in breeding hairless rats.

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  8. Thats pretty cool. Im always on the lookout for vintage taxidermy although I think my hubby would not like it. I tried to convince him once to let me purchase a deer head but he didnt give in. I so regret not getting it. (I'm in WI You need to have one of those and a fish)

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  9. Well written and informative. Not my cup of tea but our differences is what makes the world go round.

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  10. Wow that was really interesting! And yeh totally gross! But mainly because I seriously can't stand any type of rodent. Even guinea pigs. Totally phobic!! Brave doing all that!

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  11. Oh boy, there's no way I could do something like that. I'm getting more and more squeamish and ... emotional about dead animals? as I get older. I'd be upset and apologizing to it the entire time. I cried about having to kill a bee the other day. So. Yeah.

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