Conference 2010
This years conference is over now.
The main feature of this conference was Alexander Sokolov, invited over from Russia to demonstrate his methods of setting up a fox. The first surprise was the length of time he spent adjusting eyes and the pre-formed manikin, before even getting the skin out. His central message, repeated again and again, was the need to understand the animal’s underlying anatomy and structure and to have a clear idea in advance of what the animal was intended to be doing. Its eyes should not be looking at the distant horizon when the nose was inspecting the ground. The angle of the eyes and their sockets should be synchronised so they were both doing the same thing. The legs should be coordinated and doing something feasible, not adopting an improbable stance. The manikin needed adjustment to accommodate a raised paw, but even this required understanding exactly where joints were located despite the details being later hidden under the animal’s long winter fur.
Then, another surprise, the animal had been skinned through a mid dorsal incision because sewing up would be easier and less conspicuous. Actually putting on the skin was a comparatively swift process, but he then spent ages poking and pulling and tweaking at what seemed to be an already perfect fox mount, only to finish up with it being even more perfect than before! At one point, watching him poking away at the eyes with sharp forceps I flinched and was expecting the fox to blink. Alexander generously donated the finished mount in aid of Guild Funds.
Inserted into this virtuoso performance was A talk by Pat morris about learning tips from the old taxidermists of the past. “I felt a bit awkward as much of what I had to say might well be known to most of the audience”said Pat. However, nobody seemed to know it all already (or they were too polite to yawn) and everyone appeared to enjoy the story about how He came to own the last original cast iron mould used by Peter Spicer’s to make manikins for thousands of their iconic fox masks.
The competition was to mount a jay to match a particular photograph.
At least a dozen people were brave enough to have a go and it proved very illuminating. The key lesson for contestants was the need not just to match the frontal view depicted in the photograph, but to ensure that their bird was a proper jay all round the back as well. There were long discussions, led by Jack Fishwick,
aboand cons of each bird. A winner was finally chosen mounted by Steve Toher, but to me they were all pretty good jays, better than a lot of the mounts that we have seen at previous meetings being judged for credits. In a way the contestants were all winners, not just for being bold enough to enter the competition and risk public criticism, but all benefited from Jack’s acerbic but reasonably gentle appraisals, including criticism of his own bird (a failure to perch properly) and general discussion of detailed points comparing one specimen with another. Actually, perhaps we have all won because this is what the Guild is for, and its greatest success: mutual help, in practice and understanding. The sharing of ideas and benefiting from constructive criticism all help to support and improve the quality of taxidermy today.
The effect of this drive for imaginative work and improving technique was evident from the items submitted for judging. There was a lovely alert kookaburra and a satirical tableau of lemmings jumping off a bank into a pool of money. ‘Best in Show’ was a full-sized lion, leaping up to seize an impala in mid air. Whilst one might criticise details of the lion’s face and its slightly odd ribs, this was hardly the point. It was an astonishingly bold conception, carried out with striking effect.
It was also really nice to see so many friendly female faces, at least 16 of them. It never used to be like this and is an encouraging sign that taxidermy is attracting a broader range of interests and reaching a wider and appreciative audience.
Kim Macdonald gave another of his explanations of the twists and turns in the convoluted evolution of regulatory controls affecting taxidermy. The rules are becoming so complex, in an effort to address largely imaginary problems, that one is left wondering if someone somewhere hasn’t lost the plot completely. The whole point of the regulations is to assist wildlife conservation, but employing expensive people in costly government offices seems to do little to help wildlife, except protect animals from taxidermists who are not a serious threat anyway. The concept of cost-effectiveness, in terms of promoting nature conservation, seems to have been forgotten. However, the value of the Guild becomes all too apparent. If officialdom decides to tighten the rules, then without a proper professional body to stand up for taxidermy, we will all lose out (and lose our jobs too in some cases). Support for the Guild is vital if taxidermy is not to be relegated to the status of egg-dealing, whose professionals were long since put out of business. Taxidermy is not destructive, unlike egg collecting, but we need to support our Guild, and its organising Committee, to develop more effective ways of managing taxidermy and its perception by the public. That means all of us attending meetings, contributing to conferences, joining the Committee (even for a short spell) and generally paying attention to what is going on. Neglect of the Guild and what it stands for risks allowing taxidermy to be strangled by red tape and public disapproval. See you next time?
Watching Alex as he worked was an experience that wont be forgotten. The Guild would like to extend their very grateful thanks to Alex for attending and sharing his abilities with us. In the picture below Alex (left) is seen with our current chairman Phil Leggett.
