Anthropomorphic Taxidermy Questions (no photos)

Stradawhovious · Oct 29, 2014

With recent goings on in my life my wife and I are looking for a mutual hobby to keep our minds occupied while certain unpleasantness in our family, beyond our control at this point, plays itself out. The problem is that the hobby needs to be hilariously inexpensive and suit both of our interest levels.

We both tentatively decided on Anthropomorphic Taxidermy.

For those of your who do not know what that is, it's taking dead animals an performing taxidermy to give them human attributes. I know that the Hipters are ruining this too, just like they ruined bacon, zombies, beer and food... but it's a cheap hobby and we both show an interest in it. Click here for one of my favorite examples of this artform.

Our goal is to mimic famous movie posters with feeder mice from the "frozen food" section of our local pet shop. You know, give them clothes, wigs, accessories and pose them in dioramas that mimic famous movie posters... then photograph them.

On to my question. Anyone here active in this hobby? Any resources on how to get started? It seems straightforward enough and I already seem to have all the necessary tools at my disposal.
Thanks in advance to the folks that offer advice, and to the folks that are appalled by this for finding another thread to visit.

The_Traveler · Oct 29, 2014

those mice are pretty small.
that alone might be a challenge.

Stradawhovious · Oct 29, 2014

The_Traveler said:
those mice are pretty small.
that alone might be a challenge.

I'm used to fine manual dexterity... the challenge is half the fun! I've built models for years, performed resoration work on musical instruments (professionally), and built dioramas for model trains. I agree that it is probably not exactly like any of these other things, but I'm sure it's a learning curve I can handle.

Designer · Oct 29, 2014

I've never heard of this beyond the occasional "jackalope" in western bars.

I think the key to highly successful projects will be to think up some really choice projects that most people will like. I didn't care much for the boxing mice.

Stradawhovious · Oct 29, 2014

Designer said:
I think the key to highly successful projects will be to think up some really choice projects that most people will like. I didn't care much for the boxing mice.

That's just it... people are all pretty different in what they like. That's why we went with the "famous movie poster" theme. If we can dress them up al "Gone With the Wind", "Casablanca" and "The Usual Suspects" like, people will be abel to relate to it on multiple levels.

At the end of the day though, it really is for my wife and I, and if we like it, we are successful. It's just getting started that is puzzling. I've seen a few tutorial videos, read a few websites, but the product they come up with is more often than not sub par, or seemingly at risk for decomposition.