Alexandra Rose Taxidermy

How do you deal with all the blood and guts?

In most cases I don’t deal with any.

I always explain the process of taxidermy like a sock on a foot, with the sock resembling an animal’s skin. We remove the sock, but the foot is still left completely intact. It’s then a matter of cleaning and preserving the sock to put on a replica foot. It’s not like when you take your socks off your feet fall apart!

In reality, the skin is carefully removed, cleaned and preserved. A replica of the animals body is then created, traditionally using bound woodwool and more recently using foam forms, carved balsa wood and even 3D printing (yep, super cool).

The skin is then mounted over the newly created form where the majority of the hard work begins, trying to replicate life in death.