Taxidermy 1.4

Welcome back, taxidermy has really taken off this week. For a while I have been doing mostly busy work preparing for that actual mounting of the quail. I am on track with my planning and will have this all mounted with plenty of time to create a habitat or a creative way to display it. So I started off by fleshing and skinning the quail. The ones that we had thawed out were very beat up, they had holes from dog bites and broken bones from the transporting process.

 Skinning these birds was much more difficult than I anticipated, the skin is very, very thin and I would be lying if I said I didn't cut a few holes. One of the wings was completely broken so that made the process of removing the skin off of the wings without further damage quite difficult. The first bird I started on was too beat up from dogs to work with so I decided to use the other quail we had instead, but this one does not have as nice of tail feathers, but at least both of its legs are intact.

After the skin was pulled off I used the body as a reference when making the form. I mentioned in my earlier blog that forms come premade as a foam model, but my dad wanted to do this "the old fashioned way" so I made my own form. To make the form I took wood that was shaved into very fine strings and balled it in my hand and shaped it until it was the same size as the body of the quail. Once I was happy with the shape, I wrapped the wood shavings with string to secure it all the way around.This was tricky because I had to shape it so that the wings and legs could be inserted in the right place and so that they look natural. 

Next, I cut a piece of wire the same length of the neck and bent it to the right angle, After this I had to fill in the breast with cotton to give the body more shape. I also wrapped the wire with cotton and secured that with electrical tape. At the very end of the wire I bent it into a small oval for the head.

This project has presented many difficulties, I am starting to think that my choice of bird may not have been the best. The Bobwhite Quail I am doing is super small and requires intense concentration and precision. The feathers are always out of place and the holes in the skin are frustrating me immensely, but I am hoping it will all come together better than it has gone so far.