Aimée Baldwin: Vegan Taxidermy

Aimée Baldwin is a self-taught sculptor and artist from north Berkeley who sculpts these lovely paper birds aka Vegan taxidermy. Her birds are not taxidermy in traditional sense of the word, Baldwin creations -  owls, shorebirds, corvids, raptors and extinct birds - are all made entirely without animal parts. 

Artist says: "I have always been drawn towards making creatures, I couldn't resist making birds" when she found old-style European crepe paper.  The paper mimicked the organic textures found in nature and literally gave "wings" to her stunning creations. She developed her own construction techniques for creating these delicate and detailed bird sculptures using this paper and basic craft materials.

To Oprah Magazine: After drafting numerous sketches, Baldwin carves each bird's torso from rigid foam before gluing dozens of crepe paper feathers in place. (The only prefabricated parts of her sculptures are the glass eyes.) This painstaking process dovetails with Baldwin's creative philosophy: "I want to make things that exist outside of our 'cheap and now' culture—things that won't be discarded in a few weeks when people tire of them." Her birds in her Etsy store range from $550 to $3600.

via