Discover the secrets of the taxidermist!
Watch the preparation table, learn what 'jaw-juice' is and marvel at the craftsmanship involved in stuffing animals! Now on display in the brand new pop-up exhibition Under the skin at Natuurmuseum Brabant.
It is one of the most frequently asked questions in the museum: how are museum objects actually stuffed? In Under the skin you will discover the secrets of stuffing, or preparing animals. It is a special craft involving the necessary knowledge, technique, creativity, pliers and pins.
From sparrow hawk to butterfly
In the new exhibition, visitors put themselves in the shoes of the preparator. You follow a sparrow hawk during the preparation process, and you can also see how a skeleton and a butterfly are set up. And that is real precision work!
Visitors also get a look at the preparation table and toolbox: what tools does a preparator need? For example, have you ever heard of a primal flash? In Under the skin you can see what is needed for a true-to-life end result.
Animal preparation is a profession
Setting up animals is not for everyone: in Under the skin/ Onderhuids you also see end results that are less successful. Why is that? Preparators did not have all the information available today, or they had never seen the animal they had to stuff in real life. These "wrong" specimens show how stuffing used to be done and what problems were encountered then. But even now, sometimes a wrong set of eyes is used or the glue dries differently than expected.
Although some less-than-perfect specimens look pretty funny, the intention of every taxidermist is clear: they want to make the best version of the animal.
The exhibition Onderhuids is now on display at Natuurmuseum Brabant in Tilburg.