That said... first off what is a soft mount? A soft mount is basically a pelt that has the face mounted with a taxidermy form and is stuff with polyfill instead of mounting it with a foam body. Basically best way to explain it is a rug mounted animal except its sewn up and filled with polyfill. The trend of them began around the late 2000s if I recall and you can find a lot of them on deviantART where you'll find a lot of them.
As with any type of taxidermy, your going to find your good ones.
Ones that are okay quality.
And ones that are bad quality.
That said, a lot of buyers or commissioners would love to hear advice on buying one as well as looking for someone to commission to mount their pelts. Here I'm going to give you folks tips on that so that you'll know what to look for.
How much is the soft mount and how old is it? I've found 'cheaper' soft mounts that are under the $250 range for fox or coyote for example that its going to be a quality that is sub-par at best. Always remember, you pay for what you get. If you buy a cheap soft mount, your going to get cheap quality while putting a little more money in will get you a really nice animal! Age is also a factor.
Who mounted it? This one is an important one since the buyer can trace who mounted it and then find if the animal was mounted by some who just started doing taxidermy or someone that's been doing it a long time.
Making sure they are a reliable seller. I've seen way too many people over the years get burned by people that were selling them and never received them or got a ruined mount.
Does it look life-like? This one is probably the best way to weed out the bad ones. Bad soft mounts I've found look unnatural and not life-like while the good ones are going to look like how the animal did when it was alive. The best way to figure that out is looking up what the animal looks like, look up live images in google and compare it to the soft mount. You want to get one that people would think it was alive at first glance!
How long has this person be doing taxidermy? I know a lot of new people getting into taxidermy try to open up commission immediately when they probably don't know the basic on taxidermy. These are folks you want to avoid unless they are skilled right at the beginning.
When you send them an inquiry, do they ask you about your pelt? Questions like "Is the ears turned?" "Are the nose, lips and eyeslids split?" "Are the genitalia in intact on the pelt?" and so on. These are folks that know the craft well.
Turn around time. Some taxidermist vary on times, some can get them done in a few months while others a year. Make sure its someone who has a good turnaround time. Anything over a year I would be wary.
Prices. If their their prices are very low, like $150 for a fox for example...you probably want to avoid them. Found that people that undercharge are often not using quality supplies and are making the soft mounts cheaply. Research the average prices on the animal you want mounted.
Do they send WIP photos? Self-explanatory, should see progress of your commission!
Has people had good dealings with them? I know as of lately been seeing some good taxidermist who did top notch work that suddenly got a lot of bad dealings. Make sure you research the person you pick to make sure no one has had issues with them.
Do they have quality work? Look into their previous works and commissions, is there work good? Do their mounts look life-like?
Optional: Are they a licensed taxidermist and do they enter competition or compete with their works? This one more of an optional but found that licensed taxidermists are usually ones that produce okay quality work to good quality works. Bonus also if they compete since it means they are actively involved in taxidermy and that these competitions critique their work and use that to improve themselves in the long run.
These are just some of observations and advice I give to folks on soft mounts. I've seen a lot of bad ones over the years and nowadays the market is just littered with them. I want to educate people on how to buy them or look for people to mount there stuff. Not sure how much of an impact it might have but maybe would help change the tides on soft mounts to a degree.
If you guys have more to add, feel free! I might have missed some points but point of the post is to be educational and give advice.
Photos posted here are not mine but found via Google Images. If one of your works is up on here and would like it to be removed for any reason, message me privately and I'll remove it. :) I made sure to use images that would be hard to trace who did what.
