Meet A Maker: Edition 25

Meet Jazmine Miles Long

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?

I am a taxidermist and I work with museums and galleries all over the UK and internationally to create work for exhibitions, science collections and education… only working with animals that have died from natural causes. I also create my own art work and advocate for ethical sustainable practices through delivering lectures and workshops at various institutions. When I graduated from Sculpture at Brighton University I volunteered at the Booth Museum of Natural History where I was shown the craft of taxidermy and I have been doing it ever since.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?

I do not collect taxidermy! I think because people assume I would be a taxidermy fan they think I may have a large collection but I do not. I am also a vegetarian which can be a surprise to some people.

3. How long have you been making?

I have been creating taxidermy professionally for around 17 years now.

4. Who are your favourite makers?

George Dante is a master taxidermist, conservator and fine artist in the United States. He continually inspires me with his exceptional skill and knowledge of the craft but also his progressive attitude for the future of taxidermy and the longevity of natural history collections. I am also inspired by Elle Kaye a British Taxidermist who specialises in birds, her work is stunning but also her positive attitude towards creating an inclusive space within the taxidermy community is amazing and she achieves this through her various social media outlets.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?

Taxidermy involves a wide range of skills from leather tanning, carving, sculpting, model making, casting, sewing, painting, chemistry and more. I love my job because I am constantly facing new challenges as every species of animal is unique in some way. I think one technique I have developed over the years that has become a specialism of mine is combatting freezer burn. When I work with animals kept within museum collections they may have been frozen for a long time and this makes it incredibly difficult to work with. Through years of trial and error I have developed a process to rehydrate the skins. Mostly this process involves a lot of patience and may often mean that the initial stages of taxidermy which usually take a few hours may take a few days. The oldest skin I have worked with was a tiny tree creeper for Sheffield Museums which had been in the Museum’s freezer for over 40 years.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?

I love the animals and feel incredibly privileged to work so closely with them. I enjoy the opportunity to work with new species that I may have never seen in life. An example of this would be the koala I sculpted last year for Oxford University Museum of Natural History. She died in a rescue centre in Australia and was donated to the Museum in Oxford. It is a lot of pressure to create something that I feel honours the animals life especially when the animal is so rare but when this is successful I feel such pride in my work.

7. What project are you most proud of and why?

Last year I created the diorama called ‘Life in the Garden’ for the Booth Museum of Natural history. It was a two-year project working with the local community of under 10s to design a diorama that would help them to relate to the historic collection within the museum and also to tackle climate anxieties. It is the first new diorama within the museum in almost 100 years and it is the first created by a woman. I am so proud of this project because I learnt so much through making it. I hand sculpted every element of the display including the patio made using paper pulp, the slugs and snails I hand sculpted and cast into wax and even the grass and flowers I made using a traditional silk and wax technique. Telling stories about the animals is an important part of my practice and so with this project the cause and place of death for each of the taxidermy animals I created is on display alongside positive ways these deaths could have been prevented. Displaying this information helps children (and anyone) to understand the provenance of the animals within the collection allowing them to learn how attitudes and laws have changed within the UK and how precious an animals life is.

8. If someone who knows nothing about you and your practice could know one thing, what would it be?

I think it’s important for viewers of taxidermy to understand what it actually is. Taxidermy is a sculpture of an animal using just the skin of that animal (and sometimes the skull). I create a solid replica of the animals muscular structure by binding wood wool around a wire frame to build up the structure or I carve the animals shape using balsa wood and then I add details onto this form with clay. I process the skin of the animal and clean it; for mammals I tan the skin into leather. I then sculpt the skin onto my form using as much reference material as I can and measurements I have taken from the animal to make an accurate recreation. I use glass or acrylic eyes and when the skin is fully dry I sculpt on top of the skin to add details and paint any un-feathered or un-furry skin so it looks lifelike.

Learn more about Jazmine