Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Alum Tanning and New Blog

Today I made a new alum tan/pickle as my previous one was unsuccessful; the skins didn't tan  - they seemed to just be stuck in a suspended state of preservation. After asking a taxidermist I know for exact measurements he told me:

 2 pounds salt
1 1/2 pounds alum
1 pound borax

All dissolved in hot water, and then left to cool.

Well, my mixture has been made, and I have stirring it every now and then to help all the powders dissolve before the water goes cool. Hopefully it will all dissolve and go cool by tonight, and I will then put the pelts back in. If this doesn't work, back to the white tan!

Apart from this, I haven't been working much on taxidermy things this week as I was at home the weekend and also have been working on commissioned artwork.

I have a new blog for my pagan and fantasy artwork here: http://foxtrailart.blogspot.co.uk/

I will be posting sketches, commission slots, tutorials, photos and all that good stuff on there! Be sure to follow if you are interested in that kind of artwork :)

Tomorrow I will be preparing some rats for a client, and also working on some mice for another client. They want them hanging dead for some owls, so that will be interesting! They are house mice by the look of it, I have only ever mounted their domestic counterparts so I am hoping I can pull them off.


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5 comments:

  1. Meike4 September 2012 at 01:11

    Hey, I just noticed that I followed your blog for a while and just read the last entry and saw that I AM the taxidermist you asked for the tanning solution recipe, lol. What's your name on dA?
    And that tan is called "white tan" (;

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    1. The Fox Trail4 September 2012 at 03:15

      Actually you aren't, it was from a guy I know from south england n.n And the white tan here is something from snowdonia supplies :0 same kind of thing though.

      I am thefoxtrail on DA!

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  2. Meike5 September 2012 at 05:57

    Oh really, lol, I was so sure, because some people asked me about the recipe I used and it was with the same ingredients and the same amount of them O: lol. What a coincidence!
    I use snowdonia supplies too! (: The soft tanning oil for example.

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    1. The Fox Trail5 September 2012 at 08:53

      Nah, it's an olddd recipe from some books :) Also do you have much success with it? I am having trouble finding out when the skins are ready as some of them do not turn white at all ;/

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  3. Meike6 September 2012 at 05:30

    Hm...the one I have the recipe from said that bunnies (and most of the animals are do ARE bunnies) need like 2-3 days and everything size under it needs like 1-2 days and up to fox size is 3 days or sth...everything above that a week...but since I use soft tanning oil after that white tan stuff it's not thaaat bad when I take it out a little too early...i made 3 skins with it now and they turned out okay :)

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