Indiana All Day Hands On Waterfowl Mounting Brian Banbury Cary Cochran

The Indiana Taxidermy association will be offering an exciting all day hands on waterfowl mounting seminar.  The class is being held Friday, March 9th 2012 in conjunction with the annual show. Bird experts Brian Banbury, who is once again our bird judge and Cary Cochran, our mammal judge will be the instructors for the day.  Brian and Cary have amassed a staggering amount of awards at the state, national and world level and both are long time taxidermy judges and teachers.  Brian and Cary will provide you with a manikin and neck for your species.  They will also provide an artificial head that they will pre-painted for you, with pre-set acrylic eyes and eye rings.  Both instructors will then spend the day teaching and working with you on your mount.    This is  your chance to take your work to a new level!  We our lucky to be able to offer this training to our membership. Please don’t miss this opportunity.   Cost of the day is $250.  Pre-registration is required and will require a $100 deposit and what species you are doing, so Brian and Cary can prep your materials.  The additional $150 will be due the day of the class. Bring one costumer’s duck and it will pay for your day of knowledge that will last a lifetime!  Both instructors will be available starting at 8am on Friday but the actual class will not begin until 10am to allow for travel time for participants. We will end whenever we get done!  This will be an intensive training day you will want to be a part of.

What to bring:

Any species of duck skinned and degreased (wire wheeled). Leave the humorous ball attached to the bone on the wings (shoulder ball that goes in to the socket). The wings can be case skinned, which is recommended but cutting underneath will work too.  The bird should be free from fat and washed in dawn dish soap several times.  Rinse all of the soap out of the bird.  If you tan your birds then do that at this time or bring borax with you. The day before the seminar you need to dry your bird and sew up any holes at this time. You can white gas (Coleman fuel) your birds at this time if you want to.  Gassing is recommended but please leave the head out of the gas. The goal is to have the feathers as dry as possible while leaving the head and inside skin as wet as you can.  We can dry the head during the mounting process. It is recommended that you dry with a shop vac. on the blow setting.  Avoid using anything with high heat.  Place wet paper towels inside the bird next to the skin and wrapped around the head and bring it in a zip lock bag to the show. If you wish to cut off the feet and position, inject and paint them ahead of time that is fine or you can leave them on and do them later.  All the ducks will be mounted in either a standing, swimming or lying down position of your choice. 

You should also bring:

1-2 tubes of either acrylic latex calk or preferably Loctite power grab with calk gun.
Small needle and thread for sewing bird up.
Large, long needle and about a foot of cape thread.
Small bag of cotton balls.
4-6 long pins.
Bottle of superglue with fine application tip.
Tube of 60 sec. epoxy.
Piece of card board and mixing stick's
Wire for feet- if not done ahead of time.
Any tweezers, upholstery pins, scalpel, ect. You wish to use to taxi and groom your bird.
Any brand of two part sculpting compound.
Pre made habitat, drift wood ect.-whatever you want to put your bird on.
Cordless drill and bits.  (if you have one)
Roll of paper towels.
Reference pictures of species you are mounting in the position you want it mounted in.
Bird mounting stand. (if you have one)

There is a 12 person limit so please contact Michele Knight AIT Treasurer and give her the species of duck and your deposit to secure your position

Michele Knight  

2449 North Cullen Avenue

Evansville, IN 47715