Double Rattlesnake Dreams

Last July two brothers brought me a pair of rattlesnakes that they'd caught together hunting near Philadelphia.  Don't tell them but this was only my second snake job, after a tragically botched one 3 years ago.  I accepted the commission in a very casual way and it didn't occur to me until the snakes were in my possession that I needed to exercise extreme caution in handling them since I could easily puncture my finger on a fang and be on the receiving end of a posthumous, deadly, venomous snake bite.  

Both rattlers looked very similar but I think I've managed to separate the two in these photos; the first few shots are a smaller, slightly darker one, and the larger, lighter one is pictured after the carcass/meat images.

The tails are really fun, I wish I'd been able to keep one for myself to wear somehow.  They sound great.

So, about that venom.  Did you think I would let such potent stuff go to waste?

After doing some research I became completely fascinated by snake venom and its applications; I found a story about a man who has been injecting himself with venom for years and swears on its health benefits.  I also found some sketchy information about a high end luxury anti-aging cream that had (synthetic) snake venom in its base.  Apparently it acts as a topical Botox.  I have the venom in a little vial in my freezer; who knows what I'll actually do with it.

I also learned that a snake can still bite and kill a human even after its head has been severed, and that its heart will beat after being pulled out of it's body.  What tenacious, ferocious creatures.  It inspires pride in being born in the Snake Year.

Of course I wouldn't let that meat go to waste either.  After the plethora of critters I have eviscerated for food prep, I find snakes to be the quickest and easiest.  It's literally as simple as just puling the intestines like a loose yarn on a sweater.

I marinated the meat in whiskey, honey and ginger chunks for about a day.

Lucky me, I was invited to a BBQ that evening and I got to throw that snake on the grill and share it with a bunch of folks.  A pleaser, even if it was a lot of work to chew around those millions of ribs.

Next began the arduous process of altering the foam mannequins to accommodate the skin and positioning desired by the clients.  Hours of cutting, gluing, filing, sanding, measuring, test fitting, measuring again, etc.

And then presto!  A couple of mounted rattlesnakes.

I ran into a couple of issues with the seams, but aside of that I'm quite pleased with the work.

The positioning was very challenging to me since it required a good deal of twisting the skin.  Here's a secret- It's easy to hide a wrinkle in furry mounts, because it's covered in fur.  Not so with reptile skin.  Fortunately snake skin is tough and just requires a little patience and finesse.

~And that'ssssssssss a wrap~

Vampyra the Winged Domestic Feline

Meet Vampyra.  She is the beloved feline of a local Philadelphian and has been posthumously winged as per his request.  I think it was a brilliant idea.  She has a very gothy feel.

In life, she seemed to wear a mildly surprised or curious facial expression so I did my best to recreate that.  I wish I had spent more time on her pillow seat, though.  It could use some tassels, for sure, and also tends to want to lean a little bit.

I used wings from a chicken; at first I wanted to use a black rooster but after noticing all the subtle browns and reds in her coat, a pitch black pair of wings would have looked very flat so I opted for a bit more texture, color wise.



Many measurements and carcass casting to make a custom form.

A progress shot of her ears drying.  Despite the carding the ears still gave me some grief.

 Here she is, eternally poised for preflight.

It was an honor, Vampyra.  Charmed, indeed.

Here is a 12 point deer trophy mount that took me over a year to mount:

 The hunter picked him up today and I believe he was satisfied.

Even though I've been doing this job for years, I still worry that the client may not be completely thrilled with the final product.  It's challenging to be an artist and pour your heart and soul into a piece, even if it's technically a commercial venture, and then separate your self worth with the final product.

I wonder if folks in other lines of work lie awake at night fretting over whether or not they've sung a song perfectly, diagnosed a patient correctly or served an ice cream cone to the best of their ability.

Say hello to my furry friend.

 Well, he's not mine anymore, he's now in the hands of his rightful owner, a great guy who commissioned me to create a soft-mount taxidermy piece out of the dead skunk he brought me back in November.  I not only created the mount, but I saved the essence and ate the meat.  But I'm sure you already guessed that.

 His face was chewed up a bit by a possum by the time he reached my table, and it's not up to competition level by any means but for my first full soft mount it's just fine.  My client says that soft mounts are the future of taxidermy and I think I'm coming around.  I'm already working on my second one and developing a great technique to produce even better results. 

 Taxidermy you can play with!  Who doesn't love that?  (You don't have to answer that, I know there are oodles of folks who don't love it.  I get the hate mail to remind me)

Au Revoir, Skunky!

From the For No Particular Reason File:Chicken Head Glass Votive Holder

 Here we have a chicken head mounted trophy style onto a plaque, a glass votive holder dangling from his beak.  While burning a candle in this vessel would obviously be a terrible thing to do, it would make a great spare key holder or place to keep your favorite trinkets.  Maybe he can hold some salt for you to pinch off a little bit each time you need to throw some over your shoulder.

 If a luminary element is what you're hell bent on, batter operated LED candles are a wonderful option.

 He is ready to serve you.  Just don't fill this thing to the top with spare change or gold bullion; you may beak his neck.

Ashley's Wedding

Ashley approached me almost a year before her wedding date to talk about bridal & bridal party head pieces.  I believe her words were, "OK, I'm engaged, now I have to go talk to my taxidermist!"-she may or may not have used the word "my" but I like to fancy myself as providing such an intimate service to people that they would refer to me in a possessive fashion, as though part of me belongs to them.  Honestly, after the literal blood sweat and tears that go into each piece I make, part of me literally does belong to them.

Ashley wanted to wear a white lamb head on her wedding day. I told her that I couldn't guarantee it, as I basically work on a "whatever falls into my lap" modus operandi.  We agreed that come March, if I hadn't been able to source a dead or stillborn white baby lamb (perhaps a morbid task to some, to others just another day in the office), then we would start to concoct a backup plan.
March came and went, and just as I was about to chew my nails down to the bed, I sourced a 24 hours-lived lamb from a farm in Colorado.  Things really do always work out if you just let them. For me things always seem to work out literally at the last possible second, every time.

I got to work immediately as soon as Lambette arrived and skinned her, then made a mold of the head:

The mold was then cast and I test fit it on a head form.

And of course then the skin is taxied onto the form:

I use steel headbands for these types of head pieces; even still, bobby pins or clips are needed to keep them in place.  It's not your conventional tiara & veil, ladies.

She wanted very minor embellishment so I harnessed myself and limited the gems to just a few around the eyes. 

I sewed a silver plated comb into the lining for extra security, and used a very special out-of-production brocade that I reserve only for brides.

I wanted to see how it would look with hair so I attempted to give this mannequin a wig up-do, but it falls short. I suppose it's time I got some live models back into circulation.

Oh!  And there were bridesmaids!  Two of them, to be exact.  Both of them totally cool with wearing chickens on their heads.  My kind of gals.  Here is the first one:

There was a color palette that played off the country/farm type of setting where the wedding was held and I incorporated that by selecting birds with all those hues.

And the second one:

I'm having fun incorporating deveined and shaped feathers into my work these days, expect to see much more of it in the future.

Congratulations, Ashley and friends! And thank you for the honor of being part of such a tremendous moment of your life.