Whose form did you go with?

Neat. Did he at least give you some steaks? Caribou is the best wild game I've ever had.

Very cool.

Haha, no. Might have to ask him.

Looking forward to watching this process. Didn't you have a thread showing your students mounting a Peacock?

Ok, DAY 2Today I added the body puddy and plaster to even out the skull cap and secure it further to the form.

The puddy...


Back of the skull cap...kind of messy


Front


After it cured I then sculpted it down with a large file....





Then the plaster to clean it up and smooth it out more. I'll hit this with sandpaper on Monday...

Tag because I miss high school.

Always been curious about this stuff.

Cool thread! I've always been impressed with nicely mounted trophies but never really thought much about how it's done. Looking forward to more updates!

(in other words, Tag)

Very cool! Thank you for taking the time to post the pictures. I could really save a lot of money by learning taxidermy. My taxidermist bill for this year was outrageous.

Here is a picture of one of the student's work this last semester.

It turned out very nicely. There are a few minor problems, but very typical for a student's work.

Look closely above the door, on the photo fo the caribou's muzzle.

I saw that sticker and thought, "damn, that must be a cool school this guy teaches at!"

And, where can I get that sticker?

You are indeed an unusual art teacher! I just saw that you posted Day 3. Very nice, and that mountain lion looks amazing.

Day 4 Mother fucking Skinner!!!!!!!!!! Fucking O.J. did the skinning, I know it. Talk about a bunch of extra work.......

The guy who did the skinning must have never done one before. I doubt it was the hunter, but I suppose it could have been, but hunters rarely turn the ears out. This guy must have been drunk.

Here is the hide....looks pretty normal right now....


Holy fucking bad ears batman!!!!! Those holes need to be sewn up so no body puddy and fiber glass resin will slip through the holes or stitches and get in the hair. It's a bitch....


Normally, this is what you do to prep the cap....just trim the extra off the lips and eyes......




The prep before sewing up about 15 holes in the face and ears....way more than is usual....


Got to be careful that you just hit the hair line on something like this nose, or the stitches will show...


Little super glue to secure the stitches and the skin. I also go over big cuts with hot glue to really make sure nothing will come apart, but the super glue works really well, as long as it will stick to skin.


Here is some kind of rip; see the unclean cut and cut hair. I have to "football" cut around it, to remove any cut hair, and make the edges come together evenly before sewing it up....you can see the cut around the outside here before I start stitching...



I've got a bunch more sewing on the ears to do today, not sure I'll get to post more today or not. I'll update when I get done. The ears are at least well tanned, so the sewing is going well, and the hair is thick on the back of the ears, so it should hide my stitches, as long as the filler doesn't squirt thought at some point.

I worked as a camp bitch/assitant guide in Northern Quebec for a few years as a kid and I can tell you that doing the cape on a Caribou is a son of a bitch due to the large nose. Ended hitting up a Doctor we guided for some spare scapels and that was the best thing. Made enough to buy a car doing capes though, going rate was 100 bucks a cape. Got pretty good at it, prolly look worse than the one in the pic's if I tried it now.

Look at the ears.... There is no way the nose got in the way of those....LOL. You could do a better job in your sleep than this guy did on the ears.

Nice work Guns! I'm really impressed with the quality of those other mounts as well. It's very evident that your school gives you a much freer hand than others! I live in a pretty rural area and I imagine the parents and students would freak out at such a thing happening here.

Very nice Guns.

sweet!!!

Day 5 Cape Fitting....

Think of today as like going to get fitted for a new suit. We are going to put the cape on, and see how it fits the form, then make alterations based on what we've got.

We measure the eyes to nose and the circumference around the neck, behind the ears, as our two fundamental measurements. Everything else we alter to fit, if it's not right.

Here the cape is put on the form....Good fit from the nose to the eyes...as it should be, unless I was an idiot when I was measuring the cape.


Top....looks pretty good. A little tight, but it will stretch that far. Not too much of a problem.


The bottom chest area..... FUCK.......What in the blind skinner's hell is this shit?????!!!!!!


Turns out the hunter did this. He didn't know any better, as most don't, and cut it too short. Cut the cape to the animal's dick to make sure there is enough....PLEASE!!!!!! This means you have to include quite a bit of the shoulder and leg cape when you are doing this. Don't cut it out, just skin around the legs and leave them on the cape. I spent about two hours sewing up the cuts and splicing in the "armpits" to make this thing come close to fitting. It isn't perfect, but it's hard to see, unless you know what to look for.

Ok, now to try and fix this....
We shave down the neck a bit, so I can stretch the cape towards the chest, instead of around the bigger neck....this will give me a few inches. First with the sawsall...


then with the file to blend it in......


Finally, we put some small coils of clay around the eyes, nose and mouth area, so we can detail them later with the skin on them. The clay is pretty thin here, as I've smudged it out and blended it into the form. It is not as much as it looks like, just enough to let me detail a little later. Eyes are in place and set, ready for tomorrow...



Tomorrow is D day for putting on the cape.

TAG

Absolutely awesome. I applaud you for doing this in school!! Good to see some good teachers out there!!

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

Day 6—Cape goes on….almost done
First we need to trim up our ear butts and make them even..


You can see where I used a dremel to make them even…


Hide paste goes on to secure the cape once it dries…try not to get it on the eyes or on the hair


We add some clay to the ear butts so they have an anchor, and we can sculpt them in the position we want and have them stay there….


We start the sewing by connecting the corners of the cape around the antlers. We make a Y by stitching up each antler butt, to the center of the cape. Seems hard the first time, but as long as you think of the Y and where you are at, it’s pretty easy.


Here the Y is complete, and it’s time for the long road of stitching up the spine. An hour or two later and it will be all sewed up…


Our problem area is here. It’s short, and you can see where I blended the cape in the arm pit. Right on the shoulder is the stitching. You can see the hariline change on the front of the shoulder. Oh, well. It looks pretty good anyway. The owner would never know the difference if I didn't tell him. The cards are to keep the cape from drumming out away from the form.


Here is a view of the back, where we stapled up the cape to the back of the form, and trimmed it short.


The first eye is complete, as well as the tear duct is done….I’m not going into a lot of detail here as it’s just so much to explain. Basicly, you put a single pin in the front corner of the eye to hold it in place, then sculpt from there. Lots of looking at pictures of alive caribou, then sculpting that with the skin, and clay…


Here is the muzzle…It was pretty painless this time. I cut down on the clay I used around each feature, and the nostrils really fit perfectly in the form. The lips are tucked up with a flat tool, bottom first, then top. A thin handle end of a silverware would work pretty well; I use some clay sculpting tools that are different shapes. I almost messed the eyes up, by doing them like Elk; then I noticed the differences on the photos.


Other eye is detailed and done. Muzzle is together..we are almost done. Notice the pins. They hold the lips in place while they dry, so they don't pull out of the cut we did back on day 1. Half are pinning the upper lip, the rest are holding the lower lip in place. I've still got painting to do, and work on the velvet, but the major work is now close to done. I got the ears in position, and some tissure in the nose to help hold it in place.