Practical taxidermy

by Montagu Browne

The head, then, being now securely fixed face downwards, the clay which hides the lower half must be picked off. This exposes the inner edge of the mould, together with the lower jaw. Scrape the plaster to a level surface, and cut two moderately large V-shaped nicks, one on each edge of the mould, build up around as before with wood, and fill in all interstices leading to the table below with clay. See that the mouth is properly shut, introducing a little clay if needed. Brush over with soft soap, not forgetting the top of the plaster mould, and mix some more plaster and pour over the lower jaw, on to the edges of the plaster mould, until stopped by the wall; build up thicker in the centre, as before, and suffer all to dry for about an hour. After this, pull away the walls, and all retaining clay, and the mould will easily come away from the head in three pieces, i.e., two for the upper surface, and one for the under.

The chief thing to guard against is not to get the plaster behind the horns, so that it locks the front up. As, however, you may require to cast more, in length, of the under surface than of the upper, you may easily do this by lengthening the upper surface, when turned over, with clay, and casting on to that. It is this system which gives the diagonally-cut appearance to the model (see Fig. 28).

You have now three pieces, forming, when trimmed and put together, a concavity representing the place whence the stag's head has been extracted; bake these pieces in an oven for a day or so until sufficiently dried, then examine them for flaws or air-bubble holes, which fill up with clay, brush over inside with linseed oil or soft soap, tie together, and fix the mould, nose downward, in a bucket or pail, pack with wedges, and run in sand outside the mould to make all secure.

Prepare some plaster and pour into the mould at the opening and before it is quite set, scoop out some to make it hollow at the neck; allow it to remain undisturbed for from two to four hours,* then take it out, undo the string, and gently tap the mould in every part with a small mallet, rolling it every now and then upon the table; in a short time you will hear something rattle, and perhaps a little loosening of one edge or piece will take place; tap now very cautiously, lest you should break anything; soon one piece will come off, which will materially assist your labour; take time and have patience, and you will be rewarded by seeing a perfect model of the stag's head come out of the mould in due course. [Footnote: Baking, when practicable, will often assist the parting of the mould from the model.]

I have said perfect, but I mean perfect so far as this system allows of perfection. If you hold the model up to the light, or look down upon it from above, you will see, if your eye is sufficiently educated, that, although it correctly represents the hair even, and all prominent features, yet that the weight of the plaster has perhaps caused one eye to drop lower than the other, or twisted the mouth aside, and given a different expression altogether to that needed.

What is to be done then? Nothing but altering the model, by cutting and scraping it, until both sides are even, casting again from the corrected model when necessary, that is to say, when it is desired to get or to keep a very good one for reference. Remember that the model is a little larger than you require it, so that the hair marks, etc.., must be trimmed away to lessen it. Shaving the hair all away from the head, leaving only the naked skin, has been recommended as a preliminary to casting; but this, of course, destroys one specimen entirely, that others of the same size may be mounted from the model made from the shaved head. Skinning the head first, and casting from the flesh, does not help the amateur, as so many muscles and other characteristic parts are cut away, that a model taken in this manner is often worse than useless.

What, then, is our way out of this difficulty? Nothing but educating the hand and eye to the point of being able to take a dead head, and, by knowledge of its living anatomy, to model it in clay so truthfully as to far surpass any other process whatever. I can, unfortunately, give no directions for doing this. I can merely say, in the words of many unpractical "guide books" to art: "Take a board, some tools, a well-kneaded lump of clay; place the head before you in strong light, and turn out a lifelike representation of it; wrinkles, muscles, and all — in clay." To me, this is now far the easiest thing to do, but I do not forget the time when I used perhaps a ton of plaster in experiments, and wasted lots more, and learned many little arts before I could model correctly.

Let this be a grain of comfort to the learner, that, although he must waste a deal of good plaster ere he sees the "points," and before he can model straight away, yet that he has an advantage which I, as a self-taught man, did not possess — the advantage of some little practical advice, such as is given in the pages of this work.

Now, "returning to our muttons," it must not be supposed that our omega is gained when the tyro has modelled by eye, and by measurements, his first head in clay; this has to be cast from, as if from the dead head, and the resultant model touched up, where incorrect, by cutting and scraping when too large, or by addition of clay when too small. Sometimes it will be necessary to cast from this again and again, but in all cases the mould and model should be managed as before described.