How to make a stuffed fish with your own hands?

Are you a fisherman? Did you manage to catch an incredibly large or very rare fish? Your actions, as a rule, are like taking pictures with a prey, boiling an ear or just frying. And what about the rest? Memories and photos ... And how you want to demonstrate the full size trophy! How to be? You need to save the production. How to achieve this, we'll tell you now.

So, we begin

Taxidermy is a special art. Its essence is how to make a stuffed fish, animal or bird. Its techniques are different - simpler and more difficult - and depend on the category of the exhibit. That is, you need to know what kind of fish you want to deal with.

The first of the categories is fish, which do not change their shape after drying due to the leathery-stony cover. This applies to the Far Eastern sea chanterelles, hedgehogs, sea horses, needle fish, tropical bodies, and pike pikes. It is also good to keep the shape of freshwater perch, Black Sea ruff and coral groupers.

The second category is "soft-bodied" fish. River inhabitants from the number of soms, loaches, burbot, line and sea - wolffishes, moray eels, different dogs. These fish have a very thin skin, and there is a lot of meat on the body (carcass) and on the head. Or other fish - in which the scaly cover is very weak (it is a question of chasers, ulcers, roaches). After drying, such specimens are kept poorly.

The most complex, the third category includes sharks, rays and sturgeon - due to the multitude of cartilage and adipose tissue.

How to make a stuffed fish with your own hands

Each of the categories has its own taxidermic technique. We are now going to talk about the first two. Stuffed fish, photos of which are given in this article, are made by experienced masters. But the newcomer has absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

Beginning taxidermists first of all are obliged to master the procedure for getting rid of fish from the skin. You can train in cooking fish cutlets.

Take a regular perch - it has a strong enough skin:

1. We cut it along along the belly from the gills to the very tail. Knife or scissors take only sharp.
2. The skin turns aside, the viscera are cleaned, the fin rays having continuation in the body are neatly trimmed.
3. Then the meat alternately on each side separates from the edges of the skin. In this case, care should be taken to preserve the pigment layer - to later restore the fish color.

How to make a scarecrow from the head of a fish

Muscles of fish cheeks should be gently removed from the outside and from the inside, trying not to tear the skin. The resulting cavity must be filled with a packing. As such, anything suitable is soft - a soft plasticine or wax.

Eyes are replaced with plastic balls. As an option - eyes from a small old doll. With them, stuffed heads of fish look alive. But some fish also retain the shape of their eyes during drying.

The fish body is toned with honey watercolor - its thin layer mimics the natural shine. To create a "wet" effect, the stuffed fish are covered with a transparent preservative varnish (only not a yellow shade).

Having mastered the procedure for removing fish skin, we go directly to the matter of making stuffed animals. Beginning taxidermists should not choose large copies, it is difficult to work with them. Take the fish is not larger than 30 centimeters.

Necessary materials

Here's what you need to do to work:

• Wire made of aluminum 2-4 mm thick;
• Formalin solution (20-30%);
• Foil.

From the wire we make a curved wire frame and bring out its ends. They will be useful to us, to hang the fish to dry or to fix on the wall.

The next important action is the preparation of a chemical. The fish should be soaked in formalin solution, otherwise it will quickly fade. In addition, it will help the product to keep its shape.

Pour formalin into a container of this size, so that the fish can fit freely and not be squeezed by walls.

Fixation

Fixation can be done in different ways. The first way - without first taking out the meat, immerse the fish entirely in a solution already stuffed with filler and sewn. Its shape will be fixed fairly reliably, and the meat after removal will be easier to remove than raw. Do not forget about gloves to protect your hands from formalin overdrying.

Take care of the fins that decorate the stuffed fish. Each of the fins should be stretched with one hand, the other piercing its base with a pin along with the skin. All the rays should be straightened.

If it is decided to fix the unbetted fish, you can bend it in a natural way with a piece of wire that is threaded through the body. Lying in the solution of the fish will be at least a week, until all the fabrics finally permeate.

Drying

The future of the stuffed fish in the room, which is well ventilated - in the garage, shed, etc., is drying up. Do not let people in there - so that they do not inhale the formalin pairs that are harmful to health.

Fish fins should preferably be wrapped with a thin foil of aluminum, otherwise they may break during drying. After drying fish for a long time - a month or more. Paper can not be wrapped, as in the drying process, mucus will secrete and stick paper firmly to the fin. Remove it without spoiling the impression of small patches will not work.

Next, we will provide some details about stuffing a fish-stuffed and handling formalin.

Stuffing

It is different, and it is more convenient for masters to use sand, which includes sand (for small fishes) and gypsum (for larger specimens). Gypsum evaporates moisture more quickly and for the marching environment suits more.

The gypsum filler is prepared as follows:

• Gypsum (1 part) is mixed with three parts of crushed wood shavings (in dry form).
• You can add pesticide and insecticide in small amounts.
• Everything is bred to a consistency resembling a thick porridge.

The mixture quickly (until it has hardened) should be filled with fish, already put on the frame.

How to work with formalin?

To a formalin solution of 1 liter, add a teaspoon of borax. Its task is to neutralize the organic acid, which is unfavorable for tissues.

Then we take the threads of solid color, with which we sew the abdomen. At the same time, it is necessary to work carefully, holding the seam by hand, - the skin may begin to tear. After reaching the tail, the thread should be cut off or cut off and carefully tied. Finally, you need to remove excess gypsum, for which the fish is washed under a cold stream of water.

We pass to drying. While the gypsum is still damp, hands should smooth out all irregularities.

Cooking stuffed on the spot

Let's say you are traveling, and you have no plaster with you, and working conditions are field camps. What can I do? It is very useful to grab a syringe from the house and a little formalin, so that the trophy will be safe after return. And the gypsum will replace a handful of raw sea sand.

After rinsing the skin with fish, sprinkle it from the syringe with formalin. Fins need to try to fix - it's good if pins are with you. The carcass is stuffed with wet sand (can be mixed with formalin). The abdomen is sewn up, the trophy is densely packed in a bag of polyethylene.

In a tightly knotted package, the fish should be stored for a week or two. Desiccation is desirable to avoid. Returning home, place it in a container with a lot of formalin, and a week later it's time to hang the trophy to dry.

The plus of this method is that the sand will gradually pour out through the suture holes or through the mouth. The shape of the fish will still be preserved, but it will become light and can be suspended on a stiff string in any chosen place.

Alternative option

Another way that makes stuffed fish, which allows storing exhibits compactly, is popular in America. A fish scarecrow, fixed on a specially designed polished board and covered with glass, is suspended in the intended place.

To store the trophy in this way, you need to get its side slice. The fish, which has been pretreated in formalin, is neatly cut into two parts, which are not exactly equal to each other. One of the halves - a little more - remains with the fins. The flesh with the bones is scraped and put in place in their place.

The main condition is a close fit of the cut to the board. Drying will be done directly on it. The most fragile detail of the model is fish fins, for preservation they can be placed in foil. After the procedure of applying makeup, the prepared carcass is fixed on the board with epoxy glue.

About stuffed invertebrates

Perhaps, a stuffed fish these days is not so exotic. But not everyone knows that invertebrates can also be preserved for memory. The peculiarity of their processing is immersion in a formalin bath for 3-4 days. Both small and large specimens (for example, large lobsters) can be preserved subject to thorough drying.

Inner invertebrates can also not be removed. If the meat is well soaked in formalin solution, it will not be decomposed and will dry well. Small parts - tentacles, legs, mustache - it is better to pre-cut beforehand, carefully pack and deliver to the place, then fix on the body with epoxy glue coated with wooden sticks.

If you caught a starfish or a sea urchin, formalin is best not to abuse. It should be mixed with sea water. Wait for the death of the marine life, otherwise it will throw out the rays and lose its attractive appearance.

The euthanized specimens are dried by hot air at a temperature of 100-150 ° C on an iron sheet. Hot air has a "blowing" effect on their rays, which fill up and take the original shape, and do not lose it any more, cooling down gradually.

How to keep molluscs

Inside, many shellfish come in beautiful pearly shades. When cooking, mother of pearl cracked, and all the beauty will be lost. If you want to save it, it is better to avoid treatment at high temperatures.

The shellfish should be put in a freezer for a couple of days, then let it thaw. In a specimen that has lost moisture, the insides are removed quite easily, by simple shaking out. It is more difficult to take them out with the spiral shape of the mollusk, then you will need to pre-soak in formalin.

Having made a stuffed animal from fish with your own hands, you will not only leave a reliable memory in the form of a trophy, but also enrich the interior with original details.