Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy new year. This year I'll be doing a talk at The John Moore Museum about my taxidermy, how I got into it, some of the processes I use, what else I do in my business and so on. There will be a Q&A at the end and I'll have a display of items ranging from taxidermy and a mannequin showing the inner workings of taxidermy mounts, with a small amount of my textile sculpture and embroidery too. The talk is on Saturday 25th March between 11-12pm, you can view more about this going on this link: https://www.johnmooremuseum.org/events/taxidermy-today ..read more

Recently I uploaded a timelapse of a full start to finish of me working on a tawny owl. From skinning to arranging the feathers. I hope you enjoy it. If you'd like to see more content like this. Please follow my instagram @taxtiles_ https://video.wixstatic.com/video/01139b_9f85d917f48948e2acda009f7bf6a6df/720p/mp4/file.mp4 ..read more

Want to know what goes on inside a piece of taxidermy? I'll give you a basic quick summary below some of the common materials that are used today in modern taxidermy (as well as old taxidermy too). And of course an overview what materials I use as well. It can vary the materials used inside taxidermy. Historical taxidermy can have different or even similar material to what some taxidermists use today. What I use in my pieces are varies depending on what I am working on. One of the materials I use in my work is wood wool (also called excelsior). It is a product made of wood slivers cut from log ..read more

Hello there! Happy new year! Bring on 2016! I will be having a massive Winter sale so keep your eyes peeled on my etsy shop for great deals! Once they're gone they're gone! :) I'll be concentrating on my taxidermy in the future, keep practising my skills in skinning and mounting birds and mammals. For the most up to date pictures and posts. Please go on either my facebook page or instagram profile. If you have any queries about commissions, products that I sell or you would like to commission me something special. Please get it in touch through contact@taxtiles.com ..read more

Hi all, realised I haven't done a post in a while. If you want to keep up to date. Please follow me on instagram or my facebook page. Now bat taxidermy...I'm not on about the poached dried indonesian bats you see on wish.com or Ebay (please do not buy these as they are not ethical nor proper taxidermy). I'm on about British native bats. Now remember, they're highly protected and you must have a license to hold bats, live or dead if you start thinking about having one of your own. They should also be for educational purposes. To get the boring bit out of the way. I use the WML-GL02 license whic ..read more

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 easie ..read more

Back in May I was interviewed about my thoughts and opinions on ethical taxidermy, the misconceptions of the craft to what my favourite piece and what motivates me to create. I hope you enjoy it. What does ethical taxidermy mean to you?  Ethical taxidermy means to me that it hasn’t been killed for the purpose for taxidermy and I strive to source the specimens I use in my work in the most humane way possible. I do not kill any of the specimens I work with. I get a lot of my specimens from the RSPCA through a veterinary clinic in Nottingham. I also get my birds of prey from a DEFRA wildlife ..read more

I've set myself up a challenge this month called March Meet the Maker. Originally created by Joanne Hawker. #MarchMeetTheMaker is a 31 day Instagram Challenge, set by Joanne Hawker that runs throughout March every year. It's a creative community that comes together to show people what they can do. It's about building each other up, making new connections, telling your small business story, growing your confidence (and Instagram following) and most importantly, it's about putting yourself out there. https://www.marchmeetthemaker.com/ Just to give you a taster of what I ..read more

Becky Dick here, and welcome to my report of the UK Guild of Taxidermist 2019 Conference. I arrived particularly early, helping label all the specimens for judging, including lending a hand to Mike Gadd with photographing the specimens. A variety of different specimens came into the judging room, from large African game mounts to small garden birds. After dinner, Jack Fishwick did a very interesting talk about his trip to Russia, seeing large brown bears and flying in helicopters. It was very entertaining. The quality of taxidermy that was shown on the slides was amazing. After the talk we had ..read more

It's been a while since posting on here. As you can imagine, again it has been a very busy year. I usually post all my antics on instagram and my Facebook page. However, I will try to post on here more. I'll see how it goes. So I am having a go at Soft Mount Taxidermy. What is it may you ask? So naturally I will give you a Google definition: "A soft mount is a lesser-known type of taxidermy where the animal's head is mounted traditionally on a hard foam form while the body and legs contain a soft filler, usually poly-fil. This makes the finished mount soft and floppy". It's like a soft toy, ap ..read more