Soft Mount Taxidermy - Part 2
Part 1 can be found here
As promised, I would post the second part of me mounting my first soft mount red fox.
In part 1 it covers what is soft mount taxidermy, plus other taxidermists/artists examples. I also show how I mounted the head, using a traditional technique in taxidermy by using wood wool and clay to create the facial features of the fox. I know majority of people now use polyurethane forms for the head to enable accuracy of what the fox used to look like alive.
[EDIT: in part 1 I recommend critter clay for sculpting, I now recommend polycraft newclay as I find that personally easier to work with, cheaper and even less shrinkage]
In part 2, I will cover how I created the wire armature to make the fox posable, what I filled the mount with to make it "soft toy" like and how I did it.
The materials for filling the fox in to make it a soft mount and sewing equipment I used are as follows:
Soft toy filling (you can buy this from Hobby craft or most crafty type shops)
Several gauges of galvanised wire (3mm for the main body - from jht)
Wool thread (Hobbycraft, your local Recycling centre or any sewing shop, Poundland also stock wool)
Duct tape (Homebase, Wilkos, Poundland etc).
Sinew thread (waxed thread that's very tough and good for sewing for taxidermy and also soft mounting, from eBay)
Pet brush & comb (for brushing the fur into place after sewing to disguise the stitching, from Amazon)
Leather needle (super sharp and great for sewing into really hard thick skins)
Apoxie clay (for finishing and touch ups, from jht)
Scissor (ideally embroidery scissors for cutting the thread and normal scissor for general use)
Pliers (for bending and cutting the galvanized wire)
Old school cloths hanger or the end of a paint brush (to help stuff in the parts where they are narrow, like the paws or tail




Here's the finished piece below. I hope you enjoyed reading about the progress of me making a soft mount taxidermy fox.




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