Textiles and Taxidermy: 2013

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

I've finally popped my taxidermy cherry!

As many of you will know I've been trying to get myself on a taxidermy course all year, and after booking one, I have had it cancelled on me about 8 times! So finally I said no more and cancelled it myself and asked for a refund. I thought about having a go myself at home with no help, but this idea left me with many questions like, where do I get a dead animal from? what equipment will I need to use? where do I get stuff like that from, and of course how do I actually do it?

So I held off having a go myself, and it payed off; a few weeks ago I got a phone call from my father-in-law, who I now realise I should have asked for help months ago, as he's one of those people that knows everyone! It turned out that he had managed to find a taxidermist half an hour down the road, who would teach me how to taxidermy either a magpie or a jay in a day, for the very reasonable price of £100. This is by far the cheapest course that I have come across and it included the finished bird and even a pack-lunch supplied by his wife. I gave him a call feeling slightly jaded from my previous contact with taxidermists, but he answered straight away and got me booked on a course for the following week, no fuss-no muss!

Adrian said to meet me in a car park that I knew and to follow him to his workshop, this made me slightly nervous, but I got the the car park and there he was sat waiting for me in his little green Citroen just as he said he would be and we headed off into the countryside. As soon as we got to the workshop I was glad we met in the car park - there was no way I was going to find the place myself. His workshop was nestled in the entrance to a farm, It's small but it has everything that he needs.

When I got there, I found a lovely defrosted Jay sat waiting for me, I was pleased that I wasn't doing a magpie as I am one of those ridiculous people who speaks to a magpie if I see one sitting on it's own, so that I don't have a bad day! Adrian was concerned that as a young(ish) girl I might be a bit squeamish, but I reassured him that I would be fine, and that growing up I often prepared animals for eating and we got started. That being said, I was worried that as an adult I was going to struggle handling a dead animal, and that I would embarrass myself by fainting or by being sick! It turned out that I was fine though even when dealing with the most unpleasant bits - scooping out the brain and popping out the eyeballs!

2 dead Jays - Mine is the one on the right waiting to be stuffed.

We started by making a shallow incision down the breast bone, and then started to skin the body; when the skin around the body was loose enough, the legs were pushed inside out and the meat was removed.

This picture was taken after the skin was removed from the whole of the body, past the wings, up the neck and over half the head to reveal the skull. An incision was then made into the skull and the brains were scooped out. This bit was one of the worst for me, I thought the brain would be whole, but it was just pink goop, like something you would see on Ghost busters! Once this was all removed, the skin was then rolled back the right way out, and I was left with a study skin.

All of the skin was treated with Borax as we went along so that it would stay preserved once completed.

The eyeballs were by far the worst bit for me; the part of the eye that you see is very small compared to how big the actual eyeball is. A strong needle was put through the surface of the eyeball and the eyeball was forceable popped out. They burst and went everywhere, it was horrible, but I had to be careful with the eyelids of the bird as they are very fragile. The eye cavities were then stuffed with small balls of cotton wool, and then the fake eyeball was placed on top. I had to carefully stretch the eyelids around the new eye, to make sure they sat properly.

Wires were then fed through the legs of the bird and bound to the bones and also through the wings.

It's always good to have a friend with you when you're being stuffed!

A small bolster wood body was made to the right shape, this had a wire in one end that was padded out with cotton wool to create the neck, and the wire was fed up through the neck and out the top of the head. The leg and wing wires were pushed into the body to make the bird posable and then the body was sewn back up using fishing wire.

Once sewn up the bird was placed onto it's stand with two small holes drilled into it, the leg wires were pushed through the holes and the feet were pinned in place. The rest of the body was then ready to be put in place and arranged in its final pose. After I was happy with how the bird was sat I bound it in wool to keep it in place until it dried, I then snipped of some of the wire that was showing.

Foliage was then added to the base and the piece was complete; I just need to leave it for two weeks for it to set properly and I can remove the rest of the wool and the wire.

I'm not sure that I like the setting of the bird, as it's very traditional for me. So I've been playing around with him a bit, to make him more fun! I might change his perch and put him in a dome, or I've just acquired a stags head so I might perch him on an antler. Although I do like him in his little hat!

I'm really pleased with my final bird, as I thought I would create something that looked like a monster, if you're thinking of giving taxidermy a o I highly recommend it, and can't wait to have another go myself!

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Scottish Highlands

For my most recent project I have been taking inspiration from the Scottish Highlands, in particular the small glenn that my parents live in near Skye. My aim originally was to do a study of the Glenn and the local castle; I planned to put together a story of the area including my own ideas and also incorporating the local fables and traditions. Because of my interest in taxidermy and nature, the locals were all going to be pictured as animals doing human things. The final piece would have been a book and an interiors collection, including - wallpaper, furnishing fabrics and accessories.

Unfortunately due to circumstances outside of my control, my work had to go on the back burner for several months; because of this I have now had to rethink the project slightly, and make my goals more realistic for my current time frame. I am still planning on creating an interiors collection based on the area, but the work will be focusing in on traditional toile fabrics, in this way my prints will be telling stories themselves, so there will be no need to create an entire book to go with them. I will be visiting the V&A in London soon where I will be able to research toiles, to help me bring this traditional print up to date. I'm hoping that this visit will help me choose my final colour palette and the way that I repeat my images. I'm hoping to create some really simple but beautiful designs, that will really capture the feel of this tiny Glen nestled in the Highlands.

Here are some of the images that I have done so far!

Pen and ink study of a puffin

Pen and ink study of Eilean Donan Castle

Pen and ink watercolour of Eilean Donan Castle

Pen and ink Eilean Donan Castle

Pen and ink on tracing paper, Banqueting Hall at Eilean Donan Castle

Watercolour studies of the Glenn

Detail of watercolour study of the Glenn

Pen and ink watercolour stag

On a slightly different subject, I have finally managed to get on a taxidermy course, and tomorrow I will either be mounting a Jay or a Magpie - I can't wait! I'll tell you all about it next time :)

Dissertation!

After many months slaving over it my dissertation is finally done! I don't think I've ever been so relieved in my whole life; it had started to feel like I was trying to scale a mountain whose peak I was never going to reach. It turned me into a hermit; friends stopped inviting me to do things because of my standard response - I can't I'm working on my dissertation. Not only did it destroy my social life, but it also massively interrupted my studio work, I'm now really looking forward to picking up a pencil and drawing again after what feels likes months!

So far I have not really discussed my interest in taxidermy; but I'm a huge fan, I love most forms of taxidermy, traditional, artistic, anthropomorphic, and bad! I'm particularly fond of traditional taxidermy though, and love antique specimens. For my dissertation I struggled for a really long time deciding what to write about; whilst I am obviously a real fan of textiles, having dedicating the last three years of my life to it, I find I really don't enjoy writing about it. For me textiles is something that you do, it should be hands on, you should be able to handle a piece of textiles to see the weight of it and the texture, something that you can't get on a page of writing. Finally I stopped tying to think of textile subjects that I could stay interested in, long enough to write 5,000 words and tried to think of the things that interest me. Taxidermy was the only thing that caught my attention and held it.

In fact I was so interested in writing about it, that once I started to plan the essay I realised that 5,000 words would not be enough; so against my better judgement I applied to do the extended 10,000 word essay. Although I was passed the deadline for applying for this, I obviously sounded confident enough that they let me do it anyway (something that I regretted many times when writing it!). The essay investigated the process of taxidermy and how the craft has progressed since we started doing it; it also explored the conservation of taxidermy and the value of preserving antique specimens, and the importance that they play in modern society. It also questions how the context of a specimen enables the viewer to make meaning from it.

Although I was really pleased with the finished essay, the one thing that I was disappointed about was the fact that I never got to have ago myself. I had booked a course in London to mount a squirrel myself, as I really wanted to experience what I was writing about for myself. unfortunately the course was cancelled the day before I was due to do it, and despite several attempts to re-book the course it never happened. I am also yet to receive a refund - but thats a rant for another day. Despite this I feel that the essay was fairly successful and I now I just have to wait and hope that it will get me a good enough grade.

The finished dissertation, bound and ready to be handed in!

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Upholstery: my other passion!

As well as my illustrative work, I have been teaching my self upholstery over the last few years. Although I haven't been able to do much of it recently because of my uni and work commitments, I hope to pick it back up in the summer when I finish, and hopefully i'll start selling some of my pieces!

Below are a few examples of the kind of things that I have been doing for other people.

Before I got my hands on it! The sofa was about 35 years old, and had spent much of that time sitting in a leaking conservatory, so it was in a pretty bad way.

After I had a play - it looks a bit wrinkly because the whole thing is stuffed with duck down, so when you sit on it you sink into a little bit of heaven! :)

This was the first sofa that I did, it was in good shape, but the owner didn't like the colour anymore.

This is what I turned the red sofa into, it's far more fun now, and I made matching lamp shades to go with it. I was really pleased with the final outcome, especially as it was my first attempt.

These were the most challenging bits that I have done so far, mostly because of the sheer size of the sofa, its hard to tell from the picture but it was massive! The owner also wanted me to make the covers detachable and a bit on the big side, as she owned dogs and a couple of men folk, so she wanted to be able to keep washing them without them becoming too small.

Detail of the sofa, I really like the fabric it was covered in, there were lots of patches of various fabrics and all the piping was made using a variety of different fabrics, as I didn't want it all to be the same colour.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

What I love doing

It's taken me nearly three years, but i've finally decided to get with the times and start a blog about my work! As most of you will know i'm at NUA studying for a degree in Textiles, and i'm currently doing my final project before I finish (and hopefully graduate!).

I love illustration and drawing and I think that comes across in my work. I've tried lots of different skills and techniques in the last three years at university, but i've chosen to spend the last year designing for interiors, creating wall papers and furnishing fabrics. I like my work to be quite quirky and fun, but still appealing enough to be seen by a wide audience.

So I thought i'd start my blog with some pictures of the work that I was doing last year to see the sort of thing that I love doing. This project was based on Norfolk, trying to capture what makes Norfolk so 'Norfolk'; looking at the type of things and people in Norfolk that we often have the piss taken out of us for, but doing it in a sympathetic way. I wanted to create a collection that was fun, but still appealing enough to want to use it in the home.