This journal is pretty long. So if you are interested... take a little time

ABOUT COLLECTING
We are hobby taxidermists. There was no point where we said that we are professionals. There is always something to learn or to teach and we are still in the middle of this process. The main reason why we collect is in a deep connection with learning and teaching. We are both interested in biology, nature and - let's take the clicheé - animals. And we are interested since we were able to be interested in anything. Even with already knowing a lot (or little - it depends on from which side you look at it)  about nature and how everything works we still have to discover a lot. And we want to discover it on our own. And with learning about it we can tell others what we know and learn from what they know. It is about seeing, touching and comparing - and giving and taking. Of course we also love the feeling of fur or the fragile or massive skulls. It is a strange sort of passion we share with a lot of people. Just a side note: We will both work with what we are doing here - as a biologist, art and biology teacher. As you can see soon it will be a profession not just a hobby.

How did we get where we are now? Everything we do is done after we thought about how to do it. We are careful with the animals we get, not slaughtering them while trying how to do it. Our skills were raised with selfmade experiences and with trying out different things step by step. We never took something special to experiment (For example: Bird skins. Before skinning a buzzard we tried skinning crows). So don't take the most precious pelt or skull (tiger pelt, ranched foxes pelts, etc.) without knowing exactly how to do your job. Never loose the respect for the animal you are working with. With loosing this respect your are not better than any dumb child poking a stick into a dead fox.

SELLING, BUYING AND TRADING
First at all: Yes, we are selling stuff and we sell it for more than we paid - that should be obvious for everyone. Nevertheless we always try to make a good, reliable price for you. Most of our stuff is for sale pretty cheap compared to official shops. We obtain those stuff from roadkills, ebay, fleamarkets, finds in nature and hunters. Our collection is constantly growing and that means that always something is for sale. This account however is not just for selling but to show off or give references. As you may noticed there is a lot uploaded which will never be for sale (except there is a really serious case of emergency).

Gotta catch them all! and I have to have the very best! Yes, that's like the slogan of some collectors. Sometimes we think that's all about getting the most rare fox colors (SPARKLINGSUNBEAMAUTUMNGOLDFOX!!!11!!) and not about how much you like them. Of course there are beautiful pelts out there and we are also really drooling for some of them. But there are people whose trading and selling is like using stairs. They get one really beautiful thing they were searching for and throw it away for something better within a short time after finally getting it. That's a strange sort of roulette some are playing here. We can understand that in some cases but it should not be routine. And sadly for some people it is exactly like that. It is not neccessary to hunt for something just because it is rare. When you like it it doesn't matter how common or uncommon it is. Never forget about the personal value, the stories about them and what someone may connect with a pelt.

About trading: We always love to trade. You should know that by now. And you should know that we love to throw in some stuff and to make a good deal for everyone. We are very generous in general but it would be nice if you put some effort in trades since there were some great disappointments in the past. If you trade with us we always try to not just send you a plain package with no surprise but to throw something in you may like. There were a lot of people who told us that they don't have anything they can give us in return. That's totally okay! But a nice card/letter would be great (we collect postcards). A few people from Deviantart are so amazing! And we love trading with them since we both put effort in our packages and it is always a pleasure to send and recieve gifts. We are all children sometimes
The more effort you put into a trade the more you'll get back. Even with having so many people following this account (Thank you again!) we don't forget you and what we traded with you (mostly).

Shipping worldwide is no problem but we are not responsible if you don't know your own laws. We already shipped to so many countries and we are private persons (please don't forget that!) so we can't know the laws everywhere. Especially in the U.S. with so many states and different laws. Each person has to know it for himself/herself if he/she wants to take the risk. Usually we also (for example: crow wings) ship even to countries where some stuff is delicate. Neither we nor our buyers ever had problems (at least as far as we know).

ABOUT THE ART OF TAXIDERMY
Softmounts. Everyone seems to ask for them. And even with knowing why they are so popular (well, I want one for myself) they are kind of pesky. God dammit - why do you want to make a softmount out of every single pelt?! Even if they are totally not mountable. And if a pelt is mountable why is there always the question for a softmount? And please... you can't turn a polecat stole into a proper softmount. And a hedgehog softmount? Come on... seriously? A hedgehog is the last animal I would like to cuddle with while sitting on my couch. There is no need in turning everything into a softmount. Enjoy the pelts in the state they are in. Simple wallhangers can be beautiful too. And by the way: Softmounts are no toys. And no plushies. Or whatever in that direction some consider them to be. They can be nice and cuddly, yes. But please remember it is part of a dead animal.

From softmounts to their creators. There are so extraordinary talented taxidermy artists out there - but they are rare. Good stuff has its price and takes its time. That was always like that and will be like that in the future. We can understand why so many people want to mount for themselves - but some seem not to understand that it takes time and a lot of practise to be more than a newbie. Even with feeling bad to say that: practice with pelts you can easily replace (rats for example) not with a rare ranched fox or a tiger. If you are not able to step back from the idea of mounting perfectly your second animal you shouldn't mount at all. We did not stuff/mount any animals yet not because we don't want to but because we don't dare to. Soon we will try to mount our first animal - a rabbit or rat. Nobody is perfect from the beginning but you should be aware of that and act like that. Not like some misunderstood, misjudged artist. If a lot of people tell you that your work is not perfect/acceptable they may be right? Accept the criticism and work to improve.

Now we get to a pretty delicate point: Shamanism, Ritual Dancing and Headdresses. Beside the fact that we don't believe in totems, soul connections to animals our ritual dancing we accept that some do believe that. But it sounds just ridiculous that you (as a person who is not Native American) put a dead animal on your head, practicing ghost dancing or whatever. Sorry, absolutely not understandable for us. Turning pelts into something wearable and ruin them with dancing around fires or through rain is unbearable for us. That someone suddenly tells us that he/she will now buy a pelt to practice ritual dancing because he/she now believes is, well... let's say that we can't follow this thought. It is sad that all the people who are really into this kind of stuff because of some good reasons (maybe because of their relatives, their past, the religion, etc.) are thrown into the same box as all those idiots who think that they have a connection to wolves ('They are my favourite animal. I am partly wolf. AHOOOOO!') or other super special animals. It seems that nearly all those persons are connected to wolves (Just for the ones who are curious: Someone once told me that my totem is the salmon) or other animals with some kind of clicheé. And: The thought of using the animal skin as a connection to its ghost can just be found with Native Americans, Indigenous Australians and Inuits. Saying that the irbis is your totem and that you need to turn a rare pelt into headdress to dance with it - what the hell? You took the Native American Religion, took a cool animal from Tibet, mix that up and try to explain making a not replaceable pelt into a headdress - as a person who has no connection to Native Americans? Sorry, but believing in a religion means also that you believe in its limits.

Some different point of putting something in pelts/skulls which isn't there: Give your pelt a personality and a name. We do that ourselves sometimes - when we find a Scandinavian word which descibes some characteristics of the pelt. But giving the pelt/skull a name and a character? Drawing sheets for it like if it is a character of yours? You can do whatever you want to do with your stuff but our opinion is more scientifical. Acting with dead animals should be more respectful and more with adult manners. Giving things names is wonderful but reducing them to toys is impious. As we said at the beginning of that journal: never forget that it is a dead animal you are touching. Same goes for skulls (especially human skulls! Giving those names like puppies is more than impious).

ABOUT DELICATE COLLECTIBLES
Well, we already said: Know your laws. And we know ours. For most of our delicate collectibles we have the proper CITES papers. There are just two things which came to us by 'accident' and a lot of luck. So if you ever wondered if we have the papers for our stuff: Yes, we have.

Cat and Dog fur. Everyone is always discussing about that. The problem about those furs is that China and other asian countries produced them in enormous high numbers in the past and the animals were treated inhuman. So selling them and buying them is forbidden. You are allowed to own them. There are still a lot of pelts available from that time which sometimes appear as part of packages or unknown or false labeled pelts. Beside the production of cat/dog fur in China... can anyone explain us why everyone whines about cat/dog fur? What's the difference between a fox, a rabbit or a cat/dog which makes it okay to own the fur? Is a cat/dog not just an animal like every other animal? We have a deep love for cats but nevertheless we don't seperate them from other animals.

All what you may have read now (at least we hope you did ) is our own opinion. We respect yours, if it is different. We wanted to make clear where we stand and what we think.

Forgive if there some mistakes in this text - English isn't our mothertongue