That’s the belief of taxidermist Natalie Delaney-John, who is on her way to Ballarat to demonstrate the fine art of preserving lifelike animal beauty – for eternity.

Miss Delaney-John runs a Melbourne-based business cleverly entitled Rest in Pieces, which offers both taxidermy services as well as training courses.

She said the time-honoured form had changed much since the days of trophy hunters.

“These days, a lot of females are getting involved and it is being utilised more for art and photography and sculpture, and there are amazing artists all over the world using it as a medium,” she said.

“Interestingly enough, 90 per cent of my clientele are women.

“You definitely learn how to skin, but skinning is quite cathartic and really quite beautiful and very, very interesting to learn about the anatomy of an animal. 

“We set up the atmosphere with candles and music so it’s a relaxing experience.”

Miss Delaney-John typically teaches her students using mice, birds and rabbits – animals either used for python pet food or culled in population control programs. However, she has worked on a range of animals while working in teams abroad – including on elks and lions in Spain.

She said people often came to her requesting their beloved deceased pet be preserved in perpetuity.

“I don’t think that working on any specimen is strange. I guess size can vary because sometimes you have to work in a team and other times you are working by yourself, but really bringing any animal back to life is pretty wonderful,” she said.

She said taxidermy trends had changed in recent years, and now focused on achieving a lifelike posture such as flying or diving into water.

The workshop will be held at The Lost Ones gallery on September 2 from 6pm to 8pm and incude a talk about taxidermy and a skinning demonstration of a mouse. Tickets are $50, available at www.thelostones.com.au