I love to mount birds, and even though I have an extensive background mounting them, I sure had my hands full when I was approached to mount a rhea. Because I was unfamiliar with the shape of a rhea’s body, many thoughts went through my mind on how to re-create the body for this large bird. Options considered were making a quick mold out of plaster from the carcass, or heating a bowl of hot-melt glue sticks and pouring a two-part mold. Even making a fiberglass mold popped into my mind, but due to the short time I had to skin this bird, I was unable to use any of these choices. I shied away from a wrapped body due to the weight factor. Consideration of the weight was very important, since it is difficult mounting turkeys and similar big birds with heavy legs and wild wings. 
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Before I begin my first article in Breakthrough I would liked to thank Larry and Kathy Blomquist who have given me the opportunity to share my knowledge with their readers. Having been in the taxidermy industry for over 40 years, I think my experience will help other wildlife artists avoid the many mistakes I’ve made along the way. For this two-part article, I will demonstrate how I build what I call a waste mold for a set of American bison horns. For me, I basically build two types of molds: one I call a waste mold and the other I call a high production mold. A waste mold will put out 1 to 3 copies of your original part, while a high production mold will put out up to 100 parts of your original copy. My motto for building molds is “why build a Ferrari when a Volkswagen will do,” as long as the cast part is of the same quality. Also, the cost of a waste mold is far less expensive than that of a high production mold; timewise it’s a little bit faster.

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I don’t think we could ever do too much reference on whitetail deer. Over the last few years I’ve collected some beautiful reference of fighting whitetails and I have thousands of stills I have taken. I am a avid whitetail hunter and I’ve only witnessed maybe a half dozen good whitetail fights for dominance, not sparring situations, as we will often see with younger whitetails, but intense fights of older bucks.

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Wisconsin travelers may have noticed something big has been going on for months now on the old “Taxidermy & Cheese” landmark business property on Highway 35 South between Hudson and River Falls, Wisconsin. It’s true – the local people have known this business as the Aves (pronounced AY-vees) Taxidermy and Cheese for the past 40 years, offering “Top Quality Taxidermy Services,” “World-Champion Cheddar,” “Christmas Trees,” “Maple Syrup” and “Honey.” But how would a place like this be expanding to a size we are seeing now? That huge Aves wing logo is known worldwide as a leader in the self-hardening clay market, and it’s been located here the entire time in the same building.

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This article will focus on the three facets of taxidermy that must be addressed to become successful. Any weakness within the ring of three qualities must be compensated accordingly by the other two qualities. This triad of strengths must be balanced and counterbalanced to afford success. For this article, when we use the word “success” we are referring to financial success in your business. It is defined as a profit margin that allows the support of the family household. The three facets are quality of your product, marketability, and work ethic. Allow me to help define and quantitate each of these three categories and then regroup to discuss the combination. You will notice that some facets will be reflected within all groups.

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