Love That Stuff
August 6, 2009 10:24 AM Subscribe
This one looks like a kid I went to highschool with.
posted by TomMelee at 10:34 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by TomMelee at 10:34 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
This looks like something my daughter (3.5 years old) made at camp.
posted by Mister_A at 10:36 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by Mister_A at 10:36 AM on August 6, 2009
Jesus H. Motherfucking Christ on a Stick!
Yeah, that'll be the Crack Fox.
posted by Kiwi at 10:37 AM on August 6, 2009
Yeah, that'll be the Crack Fox.
posted by Kiwi at 10:37 AM on August 6, 2009
The "cute" ones are much more horrifying than the "scary" ones.
posted by Mister_A at 10:38 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by Mister_A at 10:38 AM on August 6, 2009
I can't find the crappy anywhere on that site. Fully awesome.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:40 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:40 AM on August 6, 2009
Speaking of awesome taxidermy.
Pour your liquor out of a squirrel.
posted by idiopath at 10:41 AM on August 6, 2009
Pour your liquor out of a squirrel.
posted by idiopath at 10:41 AM on August 6, 2009
Pour your liquor out of a squirrel.
This is a much better ice-breaker.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 10:45 AM on August 6, 2009
This is a much better ice-breaker.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 10:45 AM on August 6, 2009
o m g.
Wednesday's earrings and childhood toy. Uncle Fester's slippers. Gomez' biker cousin's bike. Morticia's pets. Granny Frump's going out shoes. Pugsley's bottle opener.
posted by nickyskye at 10:46 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Wednesday's earrings and childhood toy. Uncle Fester's slippers. Gomez' biker cousin's bike. Morticia's pets. Granny Frump's going out shoes. Pugsley's bottle opener.
posted by nickyskye at 10:46 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Look, I miss some of the birds I used to own, but this...this is just beyond the pale. A googly eye? For real?
posted by jquinby at 10:48 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by jquinby at 10:48 AM on August 6, 2009
This stuff really is craptacular, in every sense of the word.
posted by Mister_A at 10:51 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by Mister_A at 10:51 AM on August 6, 2009
The Buckhorn Museum in San Antonio is a great place to see taxidermy inaction.
posted by benzenedream at 10:59 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by benzenedream at 10:59 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Someday, in a more enlightened world, you'll be able to do all this with human remains.
Oops, did I say that aloud? Nevermind.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009 [4 favorites]
Oops, did I say that aloud? Nevermind.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009 [4 favorites]
I like this one for the sheer narrative possibilities (baby Sasquatch and abandoning parent?).
The rest I find disturbing though.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009
The rest I find disturbing though.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009
"I never knew Biscuit as a dog, but I did know her as a table. She was sturdy, all four legs the same length..."
posted by zarq at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by zarq at 11:01 AM on August 6, 2009
A googly eye? For real?
Look on the bright side: it's probably not edible.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:04 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Look on the bright side: it's probably not edible.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:04 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Since when was "crappy" a synonym for "awesome"? Because all I see is awesome.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:05 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by Bookhouse at 11:05 AM on August 6, 2009
After clicking through all 46 pages, one image stood out as being quite beautiful and sublime.
posted by idiopath at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2009 [12 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2009 [12 favorites]
Most interesting to me were the crappy-looking animals that were obviously meant to look real... I never thought about how difficult it would be to get those things to look natural.
posted by Huck500 at 11:22 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Huck500 at 11:22 AM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Oh gods. This makes me want to pick up taxidermy as a hobby - I really have always wanted to learn how to do it, but my fiance has forbidden me to go into any field that involves dead things that still have flesh on them. -sad strixus-
posted by strixus at 11:26 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by strixus at 11:26 AM on August 6, 2009
Cool post, but that Esodermy is gonna haunt my dreams, idiopath.
posted by lysdexic at 11:27 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by lysdexic at 11:27 AM on August 6, 2009
...but my fiance has forbidden me to go into any field that involves dead things that still have flesh on them.
I knew a girl in college who was a zoo major, and she regularly collected roadkill (if it wasn't too squashed) for off-hour studies. Her roommate was not amused with the growing collection of ziploc bags in the freezer.
posted by jquinby at 11:30 AM on August 6, 2009
I knew a girl in college who was a zoo major, and she regularly collected roadkill (if it wasn't too squashed) for off-hour studies. Her roommate was not amused with the growing collection of ziploc bags in the freezer.
posted by jquinby at 11:30 AM on August 6, 2009
I had a friend in college whose short-term housemate made biker-helmet-mounted sculptures out of the skeletons of roadkill critters. I believe he sold them, or tried to, at Renaissance fairs.
Everyone needs a hobby.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:34 AM on August 6, 2009
Everyone needs a hobby.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:34 AM on August 6, 2009
In line at a grocery store (in Orange County) one evening, I saw an average-looking anglo-american family in front of me in line. A child was in the grocery-cart seat; she looked a bit old to be sitting there, but I couldn't really judge. In her lap she held a white stuffed animal, which she caressed with care.
The stuffed animal looked off. A double- and third-take revealed what was so off about it -- it was an actual stuffed animal, a cat. Dead, eyes sewn shut, cat-napping for eternity. The little girl moved the cat from her lap, its little white tail floppy, its legs and neck stiffly formed into a cat-curl. I could hear the sawdust in its belly. Its fur was matted and a little slick in places, like when a cat sleeps under a car, and in other places the fur had been loved-off completely
I don't think this was normal, especially in Orange County. But I was not horrified. I saw it as somewhat twisted. Knowing that taxidermy is not cheap, I wonder how much this little girl loved her cat. I finally came to understand what the term "sickly sweet" means, on a visceral level.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:39 AM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]
The stuffed animal looked off. A double- and third-take revealed what was so off about it -- it was an actual stuffed animal, a cat. Dead, eyes sewn shut, cat-napping for eternity. The little girl moved the cat from her lap, its little white tail floppy, its legs and neck stiffly formed into a cat-curl. I could hear the sawdust in its belly. Its fur was matted and a little slick in places, like when a cat sleeps under a car, and in other places the fur had been loved-off completely
I don't think this was normal, especially in Orange County. But I was not horrified. I saw it as somewhat twisted. Knowing that taxidermy is not cheap, I wonder how much this little girl loved her cat. I finally came to understand what the term "sickly sweet" means, on a visceral level.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:39 AM on August 6, 2009 [6 favorites]
Yeah, another vote for "where's the crappy here?"
This made me think of this (with which I'm familiar because of this).
posted by yiftach at 11:39 AM on August 6, 2009
This made me think of this (with which I'm familiar because of this).
posted by yiftach at 11:39 AM on August 6, 2009
This is all kinds of awesome. If you're ever in northern Belgium, the Verbeke Foundation has many great taxidermy related artworks in its collection. I looked, but didn't see anything from the Verbeke featured on that site. See also, les deux garcons .
posted by skullbee at 11:41 AM on August 6, 2009
posted by skullbee at 11:41 AM on August 6, 2009
Is there a word for simultaneous horror and delight? In German, maybe?
posted by Lou Stuells at 11:56 AM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by Lou Stuells at 11:56 AM on August 6, 2009 [2 favorites]
This is creeping me way the hell out, but I can't stop looking. Something about taxidermy really is the stuff of nightmares.
Somewhere outside Elkins, West Virginia is a stretch of highway where stand, for some unknown reason, not one but two big taxidermy supply shops. I always wondered why a small country town needed two and I also wanted to go in and buy a bucket of eyes, just, you know, to have, but I never quite had the nerve.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:02 PM on August 6, 2009
Somewhere outside Elkins, West Virginia is a stretch of highway where stand, for some unknown reason, not one but two big taxidermy supply shops. I always wondered why a small country town needed two and I also wanted to go in and buy a bucket of eyes, just, you know, to have, but I never quite had the nerve.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:02 PM on August 6, 2009
What the damn hell is it with cat faces that make them so hard to mount? I've never seen a cat mount where the cat face did not look like the product of some serious inbreeding.
posted by Jilder at 12:04 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by Jilder at 12:04 PM on August 6, 2009
Many of these look like something Edvard Munch would have done, had he gotten into taxidermy.
posted by tommasz at 12:12 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by tommasz at 12:12 PM on August 6, 2009
Apparently a lot of people haven't taken Alan Alda's advice to Never Have Your Dog Stuffed to heart. (The interview linked at the NPR site contains the story behind the book's title.)
posted by TedW at 12:30 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by TedW at 12:30 PM on August 6, 2009
I went to see this A.D.A.M. (a dead animal man) last year. I think its the same guy who used to (or still does?) offer tours around NYC's chinatown, showing how to collect and make your own dead animal creations.
posted by shinyshiny at 12:52 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by shinyshiny at 12:52 PM on August 6, 2009
What the damn hell is it with cat faces that make them so hard to mount?
This guy did a pretty good job with kittens.
posted by Eumachia L F at 12:58 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]
This guy did a pretty good job with kittens.
posted by Eumachia L F at 12:58 PM on August 6, 2009 [3 favorites]
A mixed bag, I'd say. Some interesting, some good, but a lot of pretty definite crap. Once you've got over the idea that taxidermy is somehow transgressive or surreal, it's mostly pretty sad.
posted by Phanx at 1:40 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by Phanx at 1:40 PM on August 6, 2009
The taxidermy place in my home town should be here. Its sign reads
U KILL IT
WE FILL IT!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:26 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
U KILL IT
WE FILL IT!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 2:26 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Phanx, I only looked at two pages, but I checked off all of your adjectives.
posted by scratch at 2:27 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by scratch at 2:27 PM on August 6, 2009
I also wanted to go in and buy a bucket of eyes, just, you know, to have, but I never quite had the nerve.
In the early '90's, pranksters vandalized statues of Mary in various graveyards around Staten Island, and added glass eyes to them. You'd be walking under a statue and their creepy, realistic eyes would seem to follow your every movement.
posted by zarq at 2:46 PM on August 6, 2009
In the early '90's, pranksters vandalized statues of Mary in various graveyards around Staten Island, and added glass eyes to them. You'd be walking under a statue and their creepy, realistic eyes would seem to follow your every movement.
posted by zarq at 2:46 PM on August 6, 2009
Oh sweet, glad this made it to MeFi. This photo is mine.
I thought the elephant standing on it's nose was a really awesome one. Always interesting to see dead animals mixed with fine art (where's the Damien Hirst? Too obvious?)
posted by bradbane at 3:46 PM on August 6, 2009
I thought the elephant standing on it's nose was a really awesome one. Always interesting to see dead animals mixed with fine art (where's the Damien Hirst? Too obvious?)
posted by bradbane at 3:46 PM on August 6, 2009
oh yes!
posted by fuzzypantalones at 4:02 PM on August 6, 2009
posted by fuzzypantalones at 4:02 PM on August 6, 2009
I also wanted to go in and buy a bucket of eyes, just, you know, to have, but I never quite had the nerve.
You can have your eyes, and anything else as well. Probably less of an adventure, though.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:21 PM on August 6, 2009
Someday, in a more enlightened world, you'll be able to do all this with human remains.
Your time has come!
posted by lumpenprole at 5:31 PM on August 6, 2009
Your time has come!
posted by lumpenprole at 5:31 PM on August 6, 2009
If you liked this, you'll enjoy ravishing beasts but you may not be so keen on the very disturbing popple project from Tinkebell.
posted by tellurian at 6:18 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by tellurian at 6:18 PM on August 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
tellurian: interesting links. I find it strange that people were calling the popple project animal abuse. Animal corpse desecration, sure, but an animal doesn't suffer when you do something to its dead body.
I had a pet rat when I was younger, I took her everywhere, and I was determined to make some sort of taxidermied item out of her when she died. Then one day she got stomped on by a little kid, and I could barely handle the emotions disposing of the body in a normal way, not to mention taxidermy.
I also find it interesting that we seem to find it normal (even cumpulsory?) to do embalming, which isn't much more than short term taxidermy, on our human corpses.
posted by idiopath at 7:14 PM on August 6, 2009
I had a pet rat when I was younger, I took her everywhere, and I was determined to make some sort of taxidermied item out of her when she died. Then one day she got stomped on by a little kid, and I could barely handle the emotions disposing of the body in a normal way, not to mention taxidermy.
I also find it interesting that we seem to find it normal (even cumpulsory?) to do embalming, which isn't much more than short term taxidermy, on our human corpses.
posted by idiopath at 7:14 PM on August 6, 2009
Amazing, but perhaps not the blog to read when I wake up at 4:22 am.
posted by HeroZero at 2:25 AM on August 7, 2009
posted by HeroZero at 2:25 AM on August 7, 2009
« Older In writing this book my intention was to present... | O Black and Unknown Bards - Among Other Things... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by lucasks at 10:26 AM on August 6, 2009