PLATE VIII.
[a]Manikin for Tiger.—Completed.]
When the manikin has been fully covered with clay from end of nose to tip of tail, not a single inch of surface having been missed, you then have a complete clay statue of the animal, except the feet. Now put the skin over and adjust it carefully. Leave no air-bubbles under it. Catch it together between the fore legs, hind legs, under the belly, the throat and neck, and around the legs, and make it fit everywhere. Then begin at the feet and sew it up with short, strong stitches in the manner already described, shaping and filling out wherever necessary, as you go. On a large mammal it is very desirable for two persons to work at the same time, to keep the skin from drying up prematurely. Of course, the skin must be kept wrapped up in wet cloths until finished. Finish all the legs first, and then the body. You can actually model the skin down upon the body, and it will not only take the exact form of the manikin—every depression and every elevation—but it will also keep it. If there is too much skin on one side of the animal, work it together with your hand, and coax it to shrink until the superfluous skin is distributed over the animal, and finally disappears. Once, when mounting the skin of a Burchell's zebra in a peculiar attitude (at bay), I found that, owing to its elasticity, there was a superabundance of about ten inches of skin in front of the left hind leg, which was placed very far forward, under the body. But for the saving grace of a clay-covered manikin I should have been in a fix. As it was, I started in half-way up the neck, to work together and stow away the surplus skin from that point backward, and by the time I reached the seat of the difficulty (at the flank) the surplus skin was all taken up, and the side of the animal was as smooth and immaculate as if nothing had happened.
There is supreme pleasure in crowning a well-made manikin with a handsome skin, and seeing a specimen take on perfect form and permanent beauty as if by magic. It is then that you begin to be proud of your work; and finally you revel in it. You say to yourself, "This is art!"—and so it is,—but let your work speak for itself.
The head is the last thing to be finished, and this feature of the work will be treated in detail in another chapter.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
FINISHING MOUNTED MAMMALS.
Drying and Shrinking.—After the actual mounting of a mammal is finished, the specimen should be put aside in a separate room, away from the dust, and allowed to stand for from three or four weeks to three or four months, according to its size. It must have time to dry thoroughly, and shrink as much as it will. Every specimen is bound to shrink in drying, and it is better for this to occur before it leaves the workroom, and before the finishing touches are put on, rather than after it goes on exhibition, and is practically beyond your reach.
In shrinking, all the seams open, more or less; the eyelids draw away a trifle from the glass eye; usually the lips open somewhat; and in ruminants the inner skin of the ear often draws straight across the inside.