Ted Richmond is shown with a juniper log, 31⁄2 years before it was judged Best of Show at the 2017 World Fish Carving Championships, before many drastic alterations, a lot of sanding, and more than a few bits broken during the carving and finishing process.This 67-pound piece of juniper now weighs just 26 pounds. Can you see the life-size beaver, four brook trout, and the aspen branch with six stoneflies in there? Hint, the bulge on the bottom of the piece of juniper is the beaver’s back paw.

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Competition exists because your customers have many options and limited time, money, and attention. It’s important to know your competitors so that when you’re asked, “Why should I spend my money with you?” you can differentiate yourself and speak confidently about it. That “something” may not be the core of your business, but it will help you stand out from the rest. It all comes down to perception and what customers think of you and your business. What do you want them to remember?

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We are going to start with the cast that is so commonly called a blank in the industry. In the next few pages I will show you how we assemble a reproduction, taking you through the steps of grinding and detailing a cast: installing the mouth, eyes, and fins, to ready it for the paint work that completes the mount. It’s not as hard as you might think.

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Ibex belong to the genus Capra, which includes all of the goats, including domestic goats. There are 5 ibex species recognized and most exist in distinct geographical areas and most can be identified by hair color, but the recurving horns are similar. Summer and winter coats can vary in color making it vary difficult for me to properly identify each of the many ibex photos I have collected over the years. The features of anatomy  are very similar in all of the ibex species, like most animal groups, but there is a lot of individuality within the subspecies meaning form alterations may be needed to adapt to size and differences in head shape.

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Never in a million years did I think I would have the opportunity to visit a place like China. With the language barrier and its distance from North America, it always seemed so mystifying and far away, but through the art of taxidermy, it became possible. Then last summer (2017), Clark Schreibeis called to ask me some questions about how my trip had gone. He explained that he had just been asked to instruct a fish-mounting workshop in Beijing by my same hosts and was experiencing the same apprehension I had felt before I went. I reassured him I had had a wonderful experience and there was nothing to worry about. I had been well taken care of, the food was the best, the people even better, and it would be the trip of a lifetime—so go for it.

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