Oregon Taxidermy School

Mat Kubitz with his mounts at school. He is busy with his new business in Portland, OR called Benchleg Taxidermy - www.benchlegtaxidermy.com

Each student will be provided with 200 hours of thorough one-on-one hands-on training in at least the following areas:

 Birds: 

• standing / flying
• making your own forms
• sizing for manufactured forms
• using original and reproduction heads 
  

Gameheads:

• using detachable antlers
• facial expressions and muscle definition
• antler alterations
• form alterations, finishing, painting and artificial noses

Lifesize animals:

• form alterations
• sizing for forms
• open mouth techniques
• finishing and painting

Rugs:

• hide preparation
• open mouth techniques
• sewing and dying

Fish:

• assembling reproduction blanks
• painting techniques and schedules
• airbrushing basics and techniques

Tanning:

• skinning to suit each mount
• fleshing
• hair on / hair off
• wet tan / dry tan
• hide repair

Antler plaques:

• proper antler placement
• using leather
• using  skull caps

Bases:

• preparing manufactured bases
• building your own bases
• rock building
• habitat and scenery techniques
• water scenes

European mounts / Skulls:

• techniques for cleaning skulls
• bleaching and whitening
• basics of keeping beetles

Small business fundamentals:

• record keeping
• pricing
• advertising
• selecting suppliers
• scheduling your work

 As you can see, there is a lot of material to learn in a small period of time, and the work is not easy. Our class size is limited to 5 students to ensure everyone gets enough one-on-one training. 

You will be given demonstrations as needed, but at our school, each student is free to work on whatever projects they wish. This means that at any given time, there could be 5 different students working on 5 completely different projects. This provides our students with a tremendous opportunity to learn more than just what they brought by learning from the other student's training  

Jaime Hurtado is now working hard at his taxidermy business in Soledad, CA

called Still Life Taxidermy - www.slttaxidermy.com