elle kaye
Taxidermist
Photo credit: James Stittle
“To get up close to these animals like I do is something that most people will never be able to in their lifetime.”
Tell us a bit about your current job.
My name is Elle, and I am a taxidermist. I run my own business providing professional taxidermy services. I started my company three and a half years ago, after working several jobs at once, to be able to support finally go full time and making my taxidermy business a reality. I have my own studio that I rent, that’s located on a beautiful farm in Hertfordshire.
What and where did you study after school?
I went to Loughborough University where I studied Fine Art and Sculpture.
How did you get from answer 2 to answer 1?
Growing up, I had always wanted to be a vet. When I was little, this consumed me and I would spend hours doing practice ‘operations’ on my teddy bears, and creating obstacle courses in the garden for insects to navigate. I would crawl under the blinds in my bedroom late at night to listen and stare into the darkness for sightings of foxes eyes or owls, and, I begged my parents annually for a pet of my own, that I could take care for. Eventually they caved. All of these experiences informed opportunities to learn about animals and nature, and created a world of interest and intrigue. Going through school, Biology, which I loved, wasn’t my best subject grade wise. I did try, but my first heartbreak was realising I wasn’t going to be a vet. I was a confident artist and this came naturally to me, so that became a distraction, and grew into a career prospect. At University we were given complete freedom to explore topics of interest, and I chose animals, but more specifically anatomy, their function and design. This led to trying taxidermy, given that it is both anatomical and sculptural, thus ticking all the boxes. I developed and refined this skill over three years, and when I graduated I had come too far to throw the towel in. Plus, this felt right. I knew I had found the thing I was supposed to find.
What things have you learnt outside of formal education that have been helpful to your career?
I birdwatch. This informs my ability to identify birds and understand bird behaviour pretty well, and helps enormously in my role as a taxidermist. I’m also a huge bookworm, and read a lot of science about evolution, anatomy etc. which again, feels very relevant – I’ve recently started a free online course on Animal Biodiversity.
What are the really useful skills for someone in your job to possess?
Most taxidermists work alone, so in my opinion you need to have a good sense of self. There can be long days or weeks with no-one to keep you company as you work obsessively over a piece of work, and so you need to be able to adjust to these challenges, stay focused and healthy. The skill set required to be a taxidermist is quite specific, but anyone can learn it should they want to. Perhaps a stronger stomach is required, but on the whole, whilst the skills are specific, it’s just like any job. I’d say creativity is essential, though. You need to have the ability to forecast the composition; how to pose the animal, what base to add to it, what habitat to create around it, what context to give it. I think having some artistry in your toolbox will separate your work from appearing purely static to being full of life again.
What does an average day at work look like for you?
I’m an early bird. I love our earth when most people are still asleep, quiet on the roads, birdsong. I tend to go to the workshop laden with thermoses of tea or coffee, and then I’m there all day working on a commission or project. This can be processing skins (skinning or de-fatting/cleaning), preserving skins (making pickle baths or shaving skins down), or building manikins (the model that sits beneath the preserved skin). Mounting (the art of putting a specimen back together again) takes me a whole day, and the consecutive day I will spend ‘feathering’ – a whole day spent arranging each individual feather in place before it dries. I love cooking and find it real escapism, plus I’m a sucker for a process, so in the evenings, I’ll come back and experiment in the kitchen. Don’t worry, I shower first.
What’s the best thing about your job?
The privilege of working on these animals – I get to work on some incredible species, some exotic, and some native. To get up close to these animals like I do is something that most people will never be able to in their lifetime. I get to hold them in my hands and study them; see how the wing moves on a bird, and how the anatomy is designed. It’s incredible.
What’s your least favourite aspect of your job?
The trolling. People troll my Instagram because they assume I’m doing something unethical. They don’t take any time to learn about my practice before they make comments. What they don’t realise is that I only use animals that die of natural causes, and that all taxidermists are legally obliged to log all their specimens to prove where they were obtained. This is overseen by DEFRA, our animal welfare agency here in the UK. The trolling upsets me. I don’t know a single taxidermist who doesn’t love animals.
What advice would you give to someone seeking a job like yours?
Read the literature that’s available to you first. When I first started I went to the library and pulled a tonne of books on casting fish, stretching skins, tanning leather, salting, pickling, brain tanning, Victorian taxidermy etc. There is so much literature out there; you can find everything that you’re looking for. The reason I say this over other advice I could give, is in my experience there have been a lot of people enter the profession wanting to be taxidermists, but they want results overnight. This is not something you can achieve results in fast. It takes meticulous learning, studying anatomy, researching animal behaviour, watching footage on the animal when it is alive – all of these things will inform how ‘lifelike’ your mounts will be. As the technique evolves with time, you can never stop learning; it really is something that’ll take a lifetime to master. Plus, there are lots of ways to do it, so you need to find the technique and process that works for you.
Check out Elle’s amazing work at www.ellekayetaxidermy.co.uk.
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