WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.240 Oh hey, it's that extra in the movie who accidentally 2 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:06.120 looked right at the camera twice even though he was 3 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:09.359 told specifically not to. Ali Ward back with a new 4 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:13.000 episode of an old, old Old Ology. So I have 5 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:16.600 had this topic in my sights for years after once 6 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:21.679 in my twenties, at midnight in my studio apartment, I 7 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.079 found myself using a hacksaw to cut into a skull 8 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:28.640 over a bathtub. My cousin had found a deer skull 9 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:30.800 in a field, and I was trying to mount just 10 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:33.719 the antlers. It's no way to do it. But that 11 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:37.640 brings us to this week's gorgeous and gory and storied 12 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:41.079 art of taxidermy. That's right, so there is an ology 13 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:44.439 for that, thrillingly, But first, let's thank the Patreon club 14 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:47.520 at patreon dot com slash ologies for making the show 15 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.320 possible rainershine and sending in their questions. It costs as 16 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:53.159 little as twenty five cents an episode to join that, 17 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:55.679 And thank you to everyone who's been telling friends about 18 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.840 the show and who's rated and subscribed, which keeps us 19 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:01.000 up in the charts, of course, But the folks that 20 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.399 leave reviews for me to read on the darker days 21 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:06.840 like these fresh ones. Elni Akata said that they made 22 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:10.120 it through the entire back catalog. Congratulations in CHRISTA two 23 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.640 of eight says they listened to ninety nine episodes while 24 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:17.719 sewing fabric face masks. Okay, nasology, We're gonna do it. 25 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.560 So this is a real ology, and it means the 26 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:24.560 science of stuffing animals for display. It's also called taxidermy. 27 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:28.239 And I looked hither and thither and thither, and y'all, 28 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:31.480 I could not find the etymology of this one. I'm 29 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:35.400 guessing it it comes from nass Latin for nose, or 30 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:39.439 from the Germanic nass for wet. So perhaps it's the 31 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:43.200 study of wet skin. God only knows. I don't, but 32 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:46.280 I have known this nsologist for years, and I visited 33 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.439 her studio here in La. I have two dead quail 34 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:52.359 and my freezer for her. They were sadly window strikes. 35 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:54.760 They'll be put to good use. I'm excited to give 36 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:58.040 them to her. She is known as an ethical taxidermisk. 37 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:01.480 She deals with animals who died of natural causes or 38 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.840 of reasons not for the sake of stuffing, and she 39 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:08.360 runs a business called Prey Taxidermy and they offer classes, 40 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:12.599 and she handles just a veritable arc load of animals 41 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.280 preserved for museum collections and for institutions. And she was 42 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:21.159 really beautifully captured in last year's documentary Stuffed, which is gorgeous. 43 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.360 She's carved a niche as like a badass darling of 44 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:30.120 the taxidermy world. She's earned her ranks through just meticulous 45 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:35.560 work and these artful mounts and state and world championship titles. 46 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:39.280 She also, just side note, looks like a raven haired 47 00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:43.080 bombshell on like a nineteen fifties movie poster and is 48 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:47.400 usually dressed with some kind of vintage flare and perfect eyebrows. 49 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:49.919 But she swears like a sailor, and she laughs like 50 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:53.199 sunshine and preserves roadkill as a career. She is, in 51 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:56.960 a word, everyone's dream woman. So despite the two frozen 52 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:00.599 birds taking up precious pizza space in my freezer, we 53 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:03.599 alast met up virtually from our houses about a mile apart. 54 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:06.919 And this episode is just a glorious mix of nature 55 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:11.280 appreciation and real talk and warning you will hear details 56 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:15.039 of how a dearly departed specimen goes from like a 57 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:19.400 soggy corpse to stunning art and It's no worse than 58 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:21.759 what you do when you're preparing chicken for dinner, but 59 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:24.599 it will make you appreciate your next stroll through a 60 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:28.759 museum not much more. Now. Sharpen your scalpels, fasten your 61 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:33.000 aprons for a chat all about following dreams and attention 62 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:41.280 to detail, animal conservation, flesh crap, taxidermy, seal blubber, antique, ornithology, 63 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:45.840 leaving the tech world for Victorian artistry of your and 64 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.000 what it's like to date someone who has freezers full 65 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:54.719 of dead stuff with globally lauded taxiderby icon and nesologist 66 00:03:55.159 --> 00:04:13.560 Alice Markham. And so nasology is a term that you'd 67 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:15.400 heard of, but people told you it was too old 68 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:15.879 to use. 69 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:19.120 Yeah, so it's not used a lot. 70 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:20.160 I really like it. 71 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:25.160 And I heard it before very early in kind of 72 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:29.399 researching taxidermy and wanting to, you know, learn this kind 73 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:33.680 of did art if you will, and I read about 74 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:37.600 the term. It was actually in an old taxidermy textbook 75 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:39.040 and there is such a things. 76 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.000 And then I kind of had asked a few. 77 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.759 People, mostly like commercial taxidermists, and at the little taxidermy 78 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.439 school I went to in Montana, and they were. 79 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:50.480 Like, where did you hear that? 80 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.519 No one says that anymore, and so, yeah, it just 81 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:57.399 kind of got lost a little bit to the ages. 82 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:00.680 But I think I think it should have a come back. 83 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:01.839 Ah yay. 84 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.680 And how did you end up going to taxidermy school 85 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:07.120 in Montana? Like? Were you the kind of kid that 86 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.600 was finding dead stuff in ravines or were you like 87 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:11.360 an indoor kid? 88 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:11.879 Uh? 89 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:12.120 No? 90 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:14.680 Me and my sister joked that when we grew up, 91 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:17.920 we had one toy and it was called outside Go. 92 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:20.480 That's what we had. 93 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.120 We you know, So I grew up in Indiana and 94 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:28.480 also Florida, and we just had nothing but the great outdoors. 95 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:34.600 And we really, me and my sister, we always liked bugs. 96 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.160 And I was always fascinated by animals. 97 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:40.879 And I was always finding animal bones or bits of 98 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:43.879 skin or you know whatever it is fur and was 99 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:48.439 always so fascinated by it. And so I really grew 100 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:53.040 up with a lifelong love of nature and also science. 101 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:54.920 I really loved science growing up. 102 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.040 Yeah, I ended up going to school a little bit 103 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:01.639 for anthropology, got into marketing, had this whole other career 104 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:05.040 where I worked for Disney. I was the director of 105 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:08.680 Social Media Strategy and then I just kind of lost 106 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:14.399 my marbles and I did, I really did. It was 107 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:16.319 not a good work environment for me. It was what 108 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.120 I fell into. But you know, it's funny. I had 109 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:24.879 been collecting taxidermy and collecting all of these little natural 110 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:29.240 history you know, creating my cabinet of curiosities, which is 111 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:31.199 so so much. I have so much in common with 112 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.000 my taxid army students. 113 00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:36.360 Alice says that she was always an outdoor kid, romping 114 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.560 through fields and searching for bones and dead things in 115 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:43.600 the wilds of our Indian upbringing. But when did the 116 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:47.240 taxidermy bug first ender her life? Like when did you 117 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:48.720 really get that first butterfly? 118 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:56.040 You know? I remember when I first moved to New York, 119 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:57.879 so I still live in New York. I moved there 120 00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:01.800 at like eighteen years old for college, and I went 121 00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:06.399 to the Natural History Museum and so the American Museum 122 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:10.879 of Natural History, and it just it was like I 123 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:13.959 was in church, but like a church I was like 124 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:15.079 excited for and. 125 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:15.560 On board for. 126 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:19.759 It was just like everything was like mahogany and quiet, 127 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:25.040 and then you look up in these amazing dioramas and 128 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:28.199 I had just never seen anything like that. I'd grown 129 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:30.560 up around tax at Ermie. You know, it was a thing, 130 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.399 but not like this. When I moved to New York, 131 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:36.079 I knew one person there, and I moved there in 132 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:38.800 the summer, and so I spent the entire summer learning 133 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:39.560 that place like. 134 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:40.720 The back of my hand. 135 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:43.360 And I didn't know anyone in New York, but I 136 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:45.600 knew that museum, and I would take people on little 137 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:49.639 impromptu tours, like I would just kidnap like tourists, and 138 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:54.319 I did this. I was like weird kid, and I 139 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.800 just I knew that museum. And then when I moved 140 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:00.279 to LA a number of years later, I fell in 141 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:05.560 love with our museum here and the dioramas here, and 142 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:10.879 I just always wanted to work in museums. And so finally, 143 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.279 you know, when I lost my marbles at Disney, I 144 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:16.759 asked myself, if I could do anything, what would it be. 145 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:20.199 And I was like, I want to work in museums. 146 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:22.879 And I want to think I want to be a 147 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:28.240 tax at rmist. And I just and then I was like, 148 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:31.959 you know what, I'm just gonna do it. It was 149 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:35.960 just this wild hair that I got, and every day 150 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:37.799 I wake up with that same wild hair and go 151 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:40.840 to work. I wonder if anyone does classes. I wonder 152 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:43.159 if I could learn this anywhere. And so I found 153 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:46.919 this little school in Montana. We were only four students 154 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.720 and I just did like a short two week program. 155 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:55.120 So this was the Advanced Taxidermy Training Center in Thompson Falls, 156 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:58.679 about one hundred miles northwest of Missoula. And I just 157 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:00.759 looked it up on a map and I realized that 158 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:03.759 my two thousand and nine Ward family reunion was only 159 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:06.799 about fifteen minutes away. And now I'm helopist and I 160 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:09.440 didn't know about this place sooner, and it was. 161 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:10.679 Enough to get me started. 162 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:14.799 It was more geared towards what we call commercial tax 163 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:18.840 at ermie. You know, doing you know your white tail, deer, 164 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:22.840 your you know, your skunk, your whatever. It is like 165 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:25.759 things like this, which is considered it's also called trophy work. 166 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:29.679 And that was not exactly what I wanted to do. 167 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.799 I really wanted to do museum tax at ermie. 168 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:33.960 So I got back. 169 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:38.600 Down to LA and UH kind of stalked Timbovard, who's 170 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:42.399 the museum tax at rmist at the Natural History Museum 171 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.759 of Los Angeles. And I mean, I seriously, like I 172 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:49.480 figured out like his email address, and like, you know, 173 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:53.360 I really stalked him and got him to agree to 174 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.919 meet with me, then got him to agree to let 175 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.639 me volunteer, and then I just showed up like every day. 176 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:03.000 And I think at some level he was too embarrassed 177 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:04.000 like not to hire me. 178 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:07.919 So and tell me a little bit about Tim. I 179 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:12.440 understand that he is like the original dude at the 180 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:15.960 Natural History Museum. What kinds of things did you learn 181 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:19.759 from him? And does taxidermy have like a lot of apprenticeships? 182 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:21.200 Is that how it's kind of passed down? 183 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.759 Yeah, so taxidermy is one of those things where it 184 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:29.399 is very old school and you do end up hopefully 185 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:33.320 in an apprentice mentor situation. Definitely to this day, like 186 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:36.639 he'll always be my mentor you know, I call him 187 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:41.279 my taxidermy dad. I will literally call his house and 188 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:46.039 his wife goes, Tim, your daughter's on the phone. Yeah, 189 00:10:46.360 --> 00:10:53.440 he's just he First off, he's the most amazing, kind, curious, patient, 190 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.200 just lovely person you'll ever meet. 191 00:10:56.360 --> 00:10:57.200 I want to put. 192 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:00.480 Him in his own little diorama and keep him from lists. 193 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:05.639 But he's wonderful. And so what it really is with 194 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:11.440 learning is that in taxi or I mean we're preserving animals, 195 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:15.639 and that's like saying we are painting pictures. There are 196 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:20.240 so many different ways to do this, this art slash, 197 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:25.600 this science. So you're learning first the way that your 198 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.720 mentor wants to you to learn it. You know the ways, 199 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:33.960 and then they'll kind of, in my experience, Tim really 200 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.559 widen the scope. He's like, Okay, this is the four 201 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:40.399 hundred year old technique for doing birds. 202 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:42.600 We're going to use wrapped bodies. 203 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:47.840 We're going to you know, just put clay and here 204 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:49.159 are the eyes whatever. 205 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:52.399 And from those wrapped bodies that you might see in 206 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:56.200 collection drawers, she moved on to carving body shapes and 207 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:58.799 casting heads and just up and up the ranks of 208 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:03.240 difficulty and artistry, learning from the masters as she went. 209 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:08.000 I have gone and trained with other taxidermists. So I've 210 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.759 gone down to Texas and worked with Danny Owens. I've 211 00:12:10.759 --> 00:12:13.320 gone up to Canada and worked with Ken Walker. I've 212 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:16.919 gone to Europe and learned from you know, people like 213 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.240 Peter Sonson and Jack Fishwick. 214 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:22.279 I'm sure these are all names you all know. 215 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.320 Right. It's really funny because they're really famous in taxidermy land. 216 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:29.600 But then you kind of take all these techniques that 217 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:31.799 you've learned from different people, and you do what works 218 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.679 for you. So I have tax at ermy students, and 219 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.639 I always tell them the only wrong way to do 220 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:40.960 it is to say, there's only one way. 221 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:45.639 That's how I feel, and walk me through basic taxidermy, 222 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:48.519 because I think that a lot of people think that 223 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:51.399 you take the skin of an animal, you stuff it 224 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:53.320 with newspaper, and then you sew it back up on 225 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:55.080 the bottom. And I have a feeling that that is 226 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:55.919 not what happens. 227 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.039 Oh, that hurts my soul to hear that, because I 228 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:00.000 know it's true. 229 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:01.799 It's true, it's so true. 230 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:04.840 Yeah, they either think what you just said, or they 231 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:09.279 think I'm like an undertaker or a mortician and I 232 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:13.559 use like fermaldehyde and crazy chemicals, and neither one of 233 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:14.919 those things are true. 234 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:18.120 But basic taxater me is this. 235 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:24.679 You start with prep aka deconstruction. So I will have 236 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:29.600 an animal and let's say it's a mammal, and it 237 00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:34.080 comes to me dead, and it comes to me generally speaking, 238 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:35.679 frozen and bagged. 239 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:38.519 I have visited her studio and she has so many 240 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:44.960 frasers just filled with the gills with bags containing frosty birds, beavers, foxes, 241 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:49.879 dead raccoons. I saw an heirloom swan preserved on ice 242 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:53.279 since nineteen seventy six. She's probably got a word hoog. 243 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.159 They're still born tiger cubs and more, just waiting in 244 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:00.159 the chili wings until it's their time to shine in 245 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.480 the glow of her preservation techniques. 246 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:06.120 And so I have my frozen animal, and I will 247 00:14:06.200 --> 00:14:09.360 let it thaw out a little bit. I still like 248 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:11.240 to keep it cold, right, we like to be like 249 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:14.200 a butcher shop. The colder you have the meat, the 250 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:17.200 less it's going to break down on you. And I'll 251 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:21.440 take a whole bunch of measurements, you know, I will 252 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:24.440 take you know, I to nose, measurement length of the tail, 253 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:28.399 length of each limb, each individual joint to joint. 254 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.559 We have all these crazy measurement sheets. 255 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:35.240 I take photos, you know, getting myself as much reference 256 00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:36.720 as I can on this animal. 257 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:41.000 And then we're going to remove the skin. 258 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:45.000 So I've heard this described before by other taxi, I miss, 259 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.200 I'm going to borrow it. Imagine you're skinning an orange, 260 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:52.200 so the rind just kind of comes off, and you 261 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:54.600 want to try to do that in as few cuts 262 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:58.879 as possible, right, so we're kind of skinning it, removing 263 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.200 that rind, right, and all the nice juicy stuff on 264 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.559 the inside that pests would just love to eat. 265 00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:06.600 That's got to go bye bye. 266 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:10.159 So I'm not actually going into any of the organs 267 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.720 anything like that. I'm essentially removing the skin like you 268 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:16.879 would take off a hoodie or a onesie, right, And 269 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.759 so there's a few different incisions you can do, you know, 270 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:24.120 as I like to say, there's more than one way 271 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:25.039 to skin a cat. 272 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.919 So that phrase and variations of it, by the bye, 273 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.080 has been in use since the sixteen hundreds, and some 274 00:15:33.399 --> 00:15:36.279 think that it originated with the skinning and burning of 275 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:40.879 witches and thus they're suspected pets cats. But this led 276 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:43.879 me down a real masshole. And I just learned that 277 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:48.480 dried and posed dead cats were sometimes hidden in house 278 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:52.360 walls as protection from evil spirits. So if you live 279 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:55.960 in an old house and have great luck, there might 280 00:15:56.039 --> 00:15:58.720 be a really old dead cat in your wall. Anyway, 281 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.000 Alice has to skin to animal and then use what's 282 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:06.440 actly called a flesher, which is a motored grinder type 283 00:16:06.440 --> 00:16:11.559 of gadget that scrapes leftover muscle and membranes from a hide. 284 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:15.000 So imagine using like a power tool, but instead of 285 00:16:15.159 --> 00:16:18.000 sanding down wood, it just flex flesh. 286 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:21.600 Off and then the skin itself has to be preserved. 287 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.759 In the case of a mammal, we're going to turn 288 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:28.279 that skin into leather. And that is a process known 289 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:30.759 as tanning. And it's not the kind of tanning we 290 00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:34.559 do on the beaches here in California, but it's a 291 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:39.559 chemical process from turning raw skin into leather, and tanning 292 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:43.279 for humans goes back. Oh, I don't even want to guess, 293 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:46.840 because I never became that anthropologist, but probably ten thousand 294 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:50.399 years in fact, you can tan an animal with its 295 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:57.440 own brain and yeah, it's called brain tanning. And a 296 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:02.000 fun fact of that is every animal has enough brain 297 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:04.160 to tan its own skin. 298 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.200 Oh guess, okay, quick aside. Yes, Egyptians thousands of years 299 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.680 ago would preserve all kinds of animals, even hippo mummies 300 00:17:13.799 --> 00:17:17.920 have been found. And also, brain tanning works by boiling 301 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:21.759 brains with water and then applying that as a paste 302 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.440 to the hide. There's like an oily lessethin in the 303 00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:28.400 brain that moisturizes the collagen in the skin to make 304 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:31.680 it pliable and preserved. But there are other methods of 305 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:35.880 preserving skin that involve letting it soak in pee or 306 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:39.400 in a solution of pigeon droppings. Alice may have a 307 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:42.680 flair for vintage aesthetics, but yeah, that's that's not what 308 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:43.119 she does. 309 00:17:43.839 --> 00:17:48.160 The type of tanning I do, it's actually it's really fun. 310 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.400 You get into organic chemistry with this, but it is 311 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:58.559 called immersion tanning. It actually creates an ionic bond, so 312 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:02.839 it's yeah, it's really cool. So first it goes the 313 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:07.000 skin goes into an acid pickle. And I know it 314 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.839 sounds really really scary, like, oh my god, you're playing 315 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:13.839 with acid. It's really not. I use a formic acid, 316 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:19.160 and formic acid I diluted enough that it gets down 317 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:21.799 only to two on the pH scale. 318 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:24.519 And just to give you an idea of the pH. 319 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:29.680 Scale, like seven is neutral, anything above that is alkaline, 320 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:34.920 the opposite of acid, and then below seven in order 321 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:36.920 to like burn your face off. 322 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:40.359 It would be like a negative ten or something like 323 00:18:40.400 --> 00:18:41.680 that on the pH scale. 324 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:44.079 So I could give myself a little bit of a 325 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:47.720 chemical burn, but we're pretty safe around the studio. 326 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:49.440 With gloves and masks and all of that. 327 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:53.400 But yeah, it goes in this acid pickle, which is 328 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.440 essentially a big bucket with some salt and some acid. 329 00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:01.079 And what the acid does is it's stretches out the 330 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:05.519 molecules of the skin. So we're actually changing the skin 331 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:09.400 on a molecular level. So it's stretching out that molecule 332 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:11.599 and it's making space for a new ion. 333 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:14.079 And so after it's been in the. 334 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:18.039 Pickle for like a week, two weeks, six months, if 335 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:22.559 you're doing a cow then yeah, you pull it out 336 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:26.680 and you can then put it in another bucket. Now 337 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.519 it'll sound sciency, but it just looks like buckets. 338 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:33.720 And then we have some salt in there as well. 339 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:36.799 We always have salt in the water because salt is hydrophobic, 340 00:19:37.160 --> 00:19:39.839 and so it's gonna let the skin absorb some of 341 00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:42.400 the water, but not too much of it. The salt 342 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:45.759 is kind of like puts the brakes on the skin 343 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:47.079 getting too much moisture. 344 00:19:47.640 --> 00:19:50.440 And so then what happens is you add. 345 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:54.079 The commercial term for it is lutan f and it's 346 00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:57.839 an actual little ion and it goes into the molecule 347 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:01.839 and zep, all of a sudden, it's no longer raw skin. 348 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:04.799 It's leather, no way. 349 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:07.839 Yeah, so we make our own leather only it has 350 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:12.200 like eyelids and claws and footpads. 351 00:20:12.839 --> 00:20:16.920 So yeah, wow, and now tanning it also protects it 352 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:19.799 against pests and decomposition. Yeah. 353 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:22.559 Absolutely, So the first thing it's going to take care 354 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:28.559 of is the decomposition. So obviously the raw skin is 355 00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:34.279 a really unstable you know, the protechines, everything's breaking down 356 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:37.200 when you're talking about raw skin. It's also a breeding 357 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.759 ground for bacteria. Right, You've got moisture, you've got heat, you've. 358 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:42.720 Got all of these. 359 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:46.039 So it's going to be very attractive to bacteria growth 360 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:49.440 and also pests. But when you tan it, just like 361 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:53.079 a leather jacket, you know it is it is much 362 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:57.519 more stable. It's not breaking down anymore. It's got this 363 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:02.640 artificial ion in there has really stabilized that molecule. Now 364 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:06.839 one thing I do stress to my clients, which are 365 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:12.559 almost completely museums, nature centers, et cetera. You know, moths 366 00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:15.519 and beetles, which are the common pests that do go 367 00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:19.839 after taxidermy, they can eat that. They can absolutely eat it, 368 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.400 especially the little hair follicles going into the fur. So 369 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:28.599 by tanning it, we've made it not attractive to pests. 370 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:33.039 But just like a sweater, wool sweater hanging in your closet. 371 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:35.039 You know, moths can go after that. 372 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:38.920 They can certainly go after taxi my in a museum 373 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:40.319 or in your home. 374 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:44.240 So don't add random dirty stuff from outside to your 375 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:47.400 precious collections without doing a little bug management first. And 376 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:50.000 if you're gonna diy it, you got to scrape all 377 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.799 the fat and the flesh off. And while in the 378 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:55.079 old timy days they may have stuffed these hides with 379 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:59.640 newspaper or horse hair or even Spanish moths, modern day 380 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:03.119 tax dermis don't stuff them, yep, But. 381 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:08.200 No today what we are doing, we are not stuffing them. 382 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:13.079 In fact, in taxidermy world, if you say, oh, you 383 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:17.279 stuff animals, that is like the biggest dirty word you 384 00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:19.119 can say, like. 385 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.839 We it's nails on a chalkboard to us. 386 00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:25.599 Oh yeah, you know, it's sad. 387 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:32.759 Though the term, the preferred nomenclature is mount. We mount animals. 388 00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:38.559 Oh that doesn't sound any better, No, it doesn't. 389 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:42.599 What are is it foam underneath? Because I understand that 390 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:47.240 if you say do trophy taxidermy, you can buy certain 391 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.839 mounts that are like an elk buck and a doe deer. 392 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.640 So you can buy these kind of pre fab ones. Yeah, 393 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:57.279 how much are you using those versus having to sculpt 394 00:22:57.559 --> 00:22:59.519 those down to fit particular dimensions. 395 00:23:01.079 --> 00:23:04.279 Yes, so that's exactly right. What's inside is called a 396 00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:10.240 form or a mannequin. It's basically a sculpture of the 397 00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:15.079 animal that the skin is going to go over. Now 398 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.599 it has to fit, hopefully. So there are what we 399 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:24.359 call commercial forms, and there are taxidermy catalogs. By the way, 400 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:27.240 I highly recommend you go on some of these websites, 401 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:31.680