The Peacock Problem

The peacock itself was not the problem, but its original creation. What was supposed to be a change of base, became a reconstruction.

Working with older pieces of taxidermy can be tricky as you cannot always tell the structural integrity of the design or what methods were used it its creation.

I was tasked with moving a beautiful peacock from its original base, to a new perch designed to match the bird’s elegance with the client’s home interior. I was hesitant knowing the difficulties that it could pose and proceeded with caution.  After removing the bird from the original and transferring it to the new base, it became clear something had gone wrong.

To my horror, the back skin holding the tail coverts (the “tail” or train of the peacock) had started to separate and show movement. I had to fully remove the skin that had cracked and split before making a plan of action.

Once removed, the interior of the bird showed no rigid form was used to supported the skin, only excelsior (wood wool) stuffed inside for shape. The tail coverts and feathers only had a single wire for support (!!).

I had to create a way to reattach the skin and make it stable and sound to hold the weight of the train. I mixed Bondo into the interior cavity of excelsior to both stiffen the structure and provide a base to attach the skin. I cleaned and scraped as much of the mold off of the skin. Then using a two-part epoxy, canvas was attached to the skin and allowed to cure. The pieces were reunited by using another two-part epoxy and screwed together.

Since the bird had travelled many times in crates and cars in its life, this damage was going to happen. Without a form to support the skin and not enough construction to support the weight of the train, the piece was not structurally sound to withstand the weight and movement of the peacock train. Many elements age and damage taxidermy. Unfortunately, most clients and collectors do not have climate-controlled storage for their pieces like museums can offer. It is the job of the taxidermist to create pieces with those elements in mind.

Doing repair work is a great opportunity to learn how taxidermy construction can fail and how to avoid making the same mistakes.