Sonia put the degreased blue magpie skull back into the skin bag and adjusted it carefully. Then she pulled out another box.
"This is camphor powder - a natural spice that has a strong anti-moth effect. The one I use happens to be produced in Taiwan." She explained, "We have used arsenic ointment to preservative the bird skin, but The defatted kapok must also be treated to prevent insect infestation.”
As she spoke, she first spread the defatted kapok on the work surface, sprinkled it with a layer of camphor powder, then used tweezers to clamp one side and roll it tightly, and began to fill it with bird feather skin.
"When filling, fill in the order of head, neck, wings, chest, legs, abdomen, and tail. Fill it little by little, so that every part is full - but not too much..."
She said: When filling, you must first grasp the form of the bird in its natural state and fill it according to the natural form of the bird. Pay special attention to the form of reference to natural history paintings.
“If you don’t have detailed reference for the shape, it’s best not to make a taxidermy, otherwise your stuffed animal will be seriously out of shape and turn into a completely different animal.”
Then she gave instructions while filling: the areas with more muscle tissue in the specimen can be filled more, the chest and abdomen should be filled firmly, and the neck should be filled less, but no gaps should be left. If the filling is not complete, the specimen will collapse after it is completely dry, affecting its appearance.
She was stuffing her as she spoke, her movements were skillful and seasoned, and the apprentices admired her with admiration. But for Sonia, specimen making is her basic skill, not to mention that the conditions here in Lingao are much better.
After filling it, the blue magpie had basically recovered its shape. She used pins to fix the openings of the bird skin together one by one.
"Don't rush to sew the opening at this time, because the condition of the feathers has not yet recovered. After the feathers are combed, we will observe the filling effect. If there are any unsatisfactory areas, we can correct them. Once we are completely satisfied, we can use needle and thread to sew."
According to the "Australian taxidermy method" Sonia learned, after filling, the hair of the specimen should be dried with a hair dryer to restore its fluffy texture.
Although the hair dryer has no technical threshold, it is still a bit difficult to put it into the industrial system of the Senate. So this thing has never been mass-produced. This step is omitted for specimen preparation. In its place is a fully automatic oven. The hair of the specimen is fully dried using low-temperature radiation. In order to prevent the feathers from being burned for a long time, the specimen is fixed on a turntable and is continuously rotated at a low speed by a human handle.
This almost "Turkish kebab" drying requires a lot of patience, otherwise the feathers will easily burn. Sonia handed the specimen to Da Wen and Xiao Wen to bake, and seized the time to start the final steps of repairing the swordfish specimen.
The swordfish specimen was basically dry at this time. She checked all parts of the specimen to see if there was any damage that could not be repaired, and then began to scrape latex at the staple joints of the skin to cover the nail heads.
"When brushing latex, be sure to pay attention to a small amount, apply it repeatedly, and then scrape. Don't apply too much at once, but scrape repeatedly to avoid surface depressions caused by the latex setting at one time. The function is to put putty on the carpenter: fill it up Gaps to keep the height consistent with the surrounding skin.”
"After scraping the latex, we just need to wait for the latex to dry and form." Sonia put down the tools in her hands, "The last work is to color the repaired area. This is not a job I am good at - tomorrow I will Asawi will do it.”
After the swordfish specimen was moved away, the blue magpie specimen with dried feathers was brought back. The blue magpie specimen has begun the final step: shaping and combing.
The main postures of the bird specimens are flight and standing only. However, when finalizing the shape, scene-based subdivisions can be added on top of these two basic postures based on the circumstances and needs of the collected specimens. Such as watching, looking for food, looking for mates, etc. to finalize the posture.
Sonia decided not to make too complicated a pose, and just used the simplest standing pose. She fixed the blue magpie specimen on a section of preserved branch according to the pre-selected shape. Plus wooden frame support. Then fine-tune the posture. Finally, fix everything with wire.
Finally, she selected a pair of glass prosthetic eyes of a suitable size and color from a treasure chest-like multi-layered chest of drawers, and carefully installed them into the empty eye sockets of the blue magpie specimen. Because the skull is filled inside, the artificial eyes work very well after being filled into the eye sockets of the skull. A lifelike blue magpie specimen was born. Sonia carefully combed the feathers of the specimen, and from time to time collected the fallen feathers and put them into special kraft paper bags.
"Although the specimens are now finished, we still need to observe them every day. Deformation, distortion, discoloration, and feather loss areas can be corrected, painted, and feathered in time. After a week, the specimens will be completely dry, and then the scientific names and characteristics will be written on them. Attach labels with habits. In this way, the specimen is completed." Sonia looked at it with satisfaction, "Do you know how to prepare the specimen?"
"This is too complicated!"
"You have to have a pair of skillful hands."
"You have to be very patient!"
"I would definitely forget a lot of steps..."
"Teacher Suo, how can you multitask?"
…
The apprentices started chattering again. Sonia did not participate in the apprentices' discussion anymore. After a few perfunctory words, she hurried back to her research room.
The hands on the watch were close to six o'clock. Just as Sonia was packing her things to get off work, Dawen sent her a new memo.
"Sending memos so late!" she muttered, picking up the envelope.
Complaints are complaints, but as soon as the official document is delivered to her hand, she must open it and read it immediately. This is what Lin Hanlong emphasized to her repeatedly.
The sealing wax on the seal of the memorandum's envelope clearly bears the coat of arms of the senators - although it is impossible for Sonia to remember the coat of arms of each senator, she still knows the common patterns of the coats of arms of the senators.
Undoubtedly, this was a private memo written to her by a certain senator.
Who could this be?
Sonia suddenly became curious: she was very famous in the Senate, and almost every senator knew about her and even recognized her. But she didn't have many contacts with the elders, mainly a few elders from the remote exploration department of the Ministry of Science and Technology and a few people from the industrial department who were engaged in the optical industry.
But the sender's name: Du Yibin, she had never even heard of it, not to mention she knew him.
Why did a strange senator send her a memo? Judging from the number of the official document, it was not only sent to her, but also to several other senior figures related to the Natural History Museum.
Out of curiosity, Sonia opened the sealing wax and took out the letter inside.
The letter started with a self-introduction. To be honest, Sonia didn't quite understand the meaning, in order to prevent her understanding from being biased. She called Ju Wenyi over and asked her to read it out to her.
Ju Wenyi was stunned for a moment when he picked up the memo, and said hesitantly: "Teacher Suo, this is a private memo."
"so what?"
"Private memos can only be read by the recipient. It's not appropriate for me to read..."
"What does this have to do with it? The discussion is business anyway. Besides, I can't read Chinese well." Sonia didn't take it seriously, "Read it, read it!"
Ju Wenyi had no choice but to start reading the letter.
The letter began with a short paragraph expressing admiration for Sonia, but the grammar was confusing and confusing, and some of the words were inappropriate. Ju Wenyi sweated while reading it, for fear that it was a letter expressing his love written by some unknown elder. If you want to see it yourself, you will be in great misfortune! But then I thought about the memorandum, which requires a copy of the official document to be kept in the general office. It is said to be "private" but is actually just a "private opinion" and is not really a private letter. I felt a little more at peace.
"What is this written about?" Sonia frowned, "He admires me very much? And he said that I have both beauty and knowledge? I am as beautiful as a fish that sinks to the bottom of the water, and he said that I killed a wild goose? I did collect it. A stuffed wild goose, but not when it's flying."
"Yes, that's what it means." Ju Wenyi said cautiously, "The fish and wild geese are just descriptions..."
"Oh, I understand, it's a metaphor." Sonia nodded, "Then what?"
Ju Wenyi read the second paragraph and muttered: Next, Mr. Du Yuan introduced himself in a long-winded manner. He talked at length about how he loves natural history, has a lot of "experience in raising and breeding animals", and is familiar with "animals". Have a deep understanding and keen interest in habits."
If you're so interested, why don't you go to the farm and feed the pigs? Ju Wenyi cursed in his heart. I thought to myself that Mr. Du Yuan wanted to express that he and Teacher Suo had common interests and hobbies? This is very bad...
However, this foreign woman was completely unaware of it. After hearing these words, she actually smiled on her face and praised: "It turns out that he is also a gentleman who loves natural history! This is really great! It seems that he is more interested in animals." You have understanding. You can also raise animals – this is not easy!”
The next paragraph made Ju Wenyi breathe a sigh of relief. It turned out that the reason why veteran Du Yibin wrote the memo was to propose setting up a "small zoo" in the Natural History Museum to "breed representative rare animals." Then he listed a long list, all of which were animals that Ju Wenyi had never heard of. Some of the names sounded weird, such as "Dodo", "Elephant Bird", "Giant Turtle" and so on. Later, for some unknown reason, I wrote a lengthy article about the habitat and current situation of these things. Chief Du also specifically said that "many animals are already in danger." He looked very anxious.
Although Ju Wenyi felt that Chief Du's literary talent was not very good when he was reading, she could tell that Teacher Suo didn't care. Especially when she heard the description of various animals in the third paragraph, her face showed " A mixture of joy and curiosity. It seems that this section is to her liking.
