Besides price what are the main differences between Competition Quality and Commercial Quality? Do you do “competition quality” work for your commercial customers?

Personally, I do not know any Taxidermists that provide "Competition" per se quality as their standard commercial work. In general terms, competition work is done with the most advanced materials with lots of extra time involved, depending upon the level of competition the Taxidermist is entering. It doesn't make business sense to put 50 hours into a deer head when maybe a total time of 10 hours will produce a fine, quality example of their commercial work. As a fantasy example: XYZ Taxidermy offers a Whitetail shoulder mount for $500. However, the customer asks for a mount he/she saw at a recent Taxidermy Convention. It had an open mouth, was mounted on a beautiful walnut pedestal with a fence post, No Hunting sign and a small sapling involved. The Taxidermist advises they must charge $1,500 for this mount due to the extra work and expense. However, this Taxidermist brings the client to their side showroom and there is the exact mount the customer saw at the convention, blue ribbons and trophies next to the mount. The Taxidermist advises this special mount took many hours and weeks to finish. It is for sale: $3,000. Why? Man hours. Those many hours of extra detail work to produce a level of art that became an award winner. Any commercial Taxidermist with a heavy workload can't put that amount to time and effort without charging accordingly. I hope this helps answer your question.
Regards,
David
PS: I do know several artists that provide a very high standard of quality for their commercial customers. Generally, you pay for what you get, but understand exactly what your looking for before you pay.

Well said L. David. Another item to consider is one taxidermist might provide better customer mounts than another can produce as a show mount. I'd wager Mary's husband can do some taxidermy processes in his sleep, while many taxidermists might struggle with for days and still not get it right.

David Keith pretty well nailed it!

quote:

Originally posted by MC:
Well said L. David. Another item to consider is one taxidermist might provide better customer mounts than another can produce as a show mount. I'd wager Mary's husband can do some taxidermy processes in his sleep, while many taxidermists might struggle with for days and still not get it right.

i sure hope so, as he is doing two full body pygmy antelope and 2 shoulder mounts for me while Mary does a croc rug with his head on.

Can't add much to what Keith said. The main difference is time. More hours put into competition; more time altering forms, more time on finish work, detailed habitat bases, and even more important a skilled "wildlife artist" who knows what the animal is supposed to look like and uses lots of reference material. There are guys out there who can and will do it, but if you want something a step above commercial quality, don't shop based on price.

I agree you get what you pay for..
Have a look at this site...I know Marc and have been to his studio..

http://www.yukontaxidermy.com/index2.html

Watson Lake

Keith we will hook up later today on that cat for Mark

I have to say this in defense of my shop , my work, and my clients, In my studio there is no difference at all. What you see us compete with ARE Client mounts we do all our mounts to the same standards
We ONLY compete with client mounts.
Last competition our clients Rhino took Best of Show and 7 other major awards, a 98 out of 100 in Masters. He is on this forum.
A Nyala / Leopard mount for another client took a first place and Peoples Choice Award. He frequents this forum also.
A leopard lying in a tree took a Second place in Masters and the Taxidermists Choice Best Life-size Mammal in the competition, another member.
I can't do two levels of work. I produce one type of mount, the best that I can.
Those that advertise the awards they have won and show pictures of award winning mounts and then give you less as a client really should advertise with what they are going to deliver to you.

quote:

Originally posted by The Artistry of Wildlife:
Keith we will hook up later today on that cat for Mark

I have to say this in defense of my shop , my work, and my clients, In my studio there is no difference at all. What you see us compete with ARE Client mounts we do all our mounts to the same standards
We ONLY compete with client mounts.
Last competition our clients Rhino took Best of Show and 7 other major awards, a 98 out of 100 in Masters. He is on this forum.
A Nyala / Leopard mount for another client took a first place and Peoples Choice Award. He frequents this forum also.
A leopard lying in a tree took a Second place in Masters and the Taxidermists Choice Best Life-size Mammal in the competition, another member.
I can't do two levels of work. I produce one type of mount, the best that I can.
Those that advertise the awards they have won and show pictures of award winning mounts and then give you less as a client really should advertise with what they are going to deliver to you.

but there is a difference in price, no? a simple shoulder mount done to your highest standard costs less than the same shoulder mount with detailed habitat and customized form, right?

Your adding extra's when you talk about custom pose, habitat, design , ect.
Those with any taxidermist good or bad will cost you more
The answer to your question is YES
Plain and simple shoulder mounts are less than having all the bells and whistles.
The quality standard in my shop is the same.
Any work put out by us, standard shoulder mount, or all dressed up, will pull a blue ribbon in any Professional category , some in Masters of any competition. We do it all the time with client mounts.

Interesting thread.

Here at Krueger's Creations Taxidermy, Chris takes great pride in the top quality work he produces in each and every mount and would never cut corners on a customers mount. We DO NOT mass produce "commercial" quality work. We would proudly display in our own home, any piece that leaves our shop. Every beautiful mount you have all commented on, that I have posted on this site, were pictures taken before the CLIENT picked that mount up.

Kudo's Mary
We are on the same page with you.

When it comes to business a friend says "do you wnat to be known as a quick F**** or a good lay?"

It's obvious that being a top notch taxidermist for all clients is paying off for Chris and other great taxidermists. Quality and service will always be tops in any business.

the chef

Some more differences between customer and competition quality.

-Nasal. The detailed work inside the nose is a huge difference between the two levels. Septums, paint, finish, etc. Items which can only be viewed and assessed by a flashlight.

-Individual wisker alignment. Each and every wisker on the face in place, correctly aligned, not disturbing other hairs .

-Inner ear. Correct inner ear anatomy, fullness. Can only be reviewed by feel and flash light.

-Mouth. Perfect lip placement; no shrinkage, each hair properly aligned. Competition quality is assessed by flashlight.

-Pose. While extreme action poses do gain higher scores, if done properly, I have seen standard shoulder mule deer mounts win shows. Simply altering a pose on a shoulder mount does not make it "Competition" quality.

I think those are the major differences between the two levels of work. As you can see, the "flashlight" differences are something that 99% of customers would have no clue about.

i hope you weren't offended by my post, as it was meant only for clarification. having viewed mounts by most of the top notch taxi's on AR, every one of them have been top notch. i was only wondering out loud if all your mounts were fully habitated (hey, it COULD be a word! ) and competition ready, or if you did standard, albeit high quality, mounts, which you stated you do.

once again, the work showed on these forums and your own websites is stunning!

No offense taken by us, we thought it was a fine question.

This is a bit off topic, but most competition mounts start with a top quality skin. What if there are slips or cuts, or the hide just doesn't tan up right; do you go ahead and mount it after explaining the problem to the customer? I have one tanned deer cape right now that I cannot decide if I want to have it mounted or not; it was taken during the rut and has scars and fighting cuts on the neck and brisket, as well as some hair loss here and there. One taxidermist offered to sell me another cape, another suggested I go ahead and mount it; he thought the cape has a lot of "character". It is a Javan Rusa by the way, and he was a real fighter!

RBHunt, a skin "is what it is." If you are wanting a blemish free skin than I would recommend replacing the cape. If you want it the way it was, use that skin. There is a big difference IMO between blemishes caused by hair slip or damage to the skin after the animal was killed and blemishes that were present when the animal was alive. Many blemishes, cuts, rubs, etc.. can be repaired, or blendid in such a way as to produce a good looking mount but if you want the look of a perfect skin you will pretty much need to start with one.

As to the topic of this thread, I will agree that any good taxidermist should be able to enter a clients piece into a competition and score a first or second place in a professional division.

Do not cofuse a competition piece with a highly altered piece. There may be many more hours put into a certain piece due to the extreme alterations done to the form, components, habitat etc.. A standard closed mouth shoulder mount can be a competition mount too. Once you KNOW what a certain anatomical feature looks like, it does not take any more time to re create it correctly than it does to do it incorrectly.

quote:

Every beautiful mount you have all commented on, that I have posted on this site, were pictures taken before the CLIENT picked that mount up.

Agreed. Me too, what you see is what you get.

Thanks for all the info.