Last night I spent two hours with my mentor. I had to take the cartilage out of a deer's ears. Then I had to sew up the holes in the hide. There were a lot of holes, and I stabbed my finger with the needle once. When that was finished she showed me how to tell if the ear liners fit, which they didn't, and then she trimmed one to make it fit and I did the other.

Oh, and I also finished my paper the beginning of last week. I'm feeling pretty confident about this project.

Finished!

I am done with my product! I went to my mentor's house for 1 hours and 45 minutes last night. I worked on my European mount and let it dry. Paula was getting ready to paint the deer, so I had to apoxie the one she forgot to do. I had to fill in around the eyes, in the nose, and the tear ducts. She showed me how to paint them. I brushed all of the lumps out of the hair. Then when my mount dried, I took the tape off of the antlers and made sure none of the paint went through the tape.

Yesterday I spent some more time with my mentor. I was there for about two hours. We worked on my project. I had to mix bondo and put it on the skull cap and attach it to the skull. Then I had to drill a hole through the skull cap and bondo to make sure it doesn't come off of the skull. Then I had to mix epoxy to get the right color. I had to use this to fill in all the gaps and cracks. Then I had to redraw markings on the skull(everything circled in pink) with a pin. Once that started to dry I had to put tape around the antlers to keep them safe from paint, and then spray paint it lightly to even out any color differences there were since the color of the epoxy didn't match exactly.
We had to let it dry, so next time I go see her we will finish it. I am excited to see how the final product turns out.

I spent two hours with my mentor last night. I got all of the skin off of the skull cap of the antlers I'm working on. I also stained them, because they weren't a very nice color. I helped her take the cartilage off of the inside of a deer and fit the hide on a form.
Next time I meet with her we are going to finish my product, and maybe mount a deer.

Friday October 9th I spent with my mentor, I did a practice European mount. We spent about 3 hours together. I helped her do some final touches and detailing on a mount she was working on. I worked on all of the areas on the face that needed to be filled in.

Introduction

I just wrote my introduction to my paper. This adds almost a page to my paper, thank God!

Starting

September 25th, I spent 3 hours with my mentor. Austin went with me and took some pictures. She showed me how to prep the form and set the antlers with Bondo.

Starting my product

My original mentor called me the other night. So I'm going over there today to start my product. Austin is going with me to take pictures and stuff. I might go there tomorrow too, but it depends on her schedule.

Hunting Store

So, I went to the hunting store yesterday to get some names of some people because I need a new mentor. There were these three guys in there and they gave me some business cards and talked to me. They were the nicest guys I've ever met. They offered to get me an animal to stuff if I can't find one, and they told me to come back and they would teach me how to skin a deer and let me help. It was pretty awesome of them.
Today I'm going to talk to the man thats more than likely gonna be my new mentor. They said he's really good and that he would be the perfect mentor for me. So thats on my agenda for today.

Paper, again

I'm working on my paper today, I have one page. I need 6 by tomorrow...

My mentor never called me back. I guess I need to call her tonight and see whats up. Hopefully we can get together soon.

Paper

The thesis statement is staying the way it is. Everything else I write sounds bad. I started writing the paper today. I have half of a page so far.

Thesis Statement

I have a thesis statement! I think I'm gonna work on it a little more though. I don't feel like it is perfect yet.

Mentor

I met my mentor today. I drove around in search of her house, passing it twice. I finally got there and met her. She talked about what we were gonna do, and even offered to let me borrow some videos on taxidermy next time we get together. This weekend might possibly be my first lesson: skinning the animal. She has a bob cat, I think thats what she said, that needs to be skinned so she can send it off to the tanner. So I am going to help her and get the feel of it and some hands on experience. I'm kind of excited and nervous, just because I don't know how it will affect me. I think I'll be fine though.

Day 5

I found a mentor! Her name is Paula Watson. I'm meeting with her on Monday at 5pm.

Day 4

I am writing my letter of intent today. It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I have to find a mentor today. I found a woman that does taxidermy. I'm excited about that. Now I just have to call her.

Day 3

Today I am looking up some information about taxidermy and trying to decide what to do my paper on.

Today I am looking up some information about taxidermy and trying to decide what to do my paper on.

Day 2

Today we went over some of the forms that we have to turn in Monday. I did some research on taxidermy and the different methods that are used. I still need to find a mentor. That is my goal for the night.

First Day

Today is the first day we have really started on the graduation project. I have decided to do my project on taxidermy. In class today we talked about the project. We shared our topics with the class. I made a Google Site and a Blogger account for my project. I'm not sure how to use a Google site yet, so I will be in the process of figuring that out. Now I just have to find a mentor.