Catches of the day preserved forever (From Worcester News)

Catches of the day preserved forever

3:18pm Monday 12th December 2011 in Mike Pryce By Mike Pryce

IT probably fits somewhere under the heading of “it takes all sorts”, for it’s not every day you come across someone who stuffs fish. In fact if you live around here you won’t come across John Wilesmith at all, because he now lives in Tasmania, but this former ceramic artist with Royal Worcester Porcelain is one of the top piscine taxidermists in Australasia.

There are, as it happens, quite a few people of a similar name in the Worcestershire-Herefordshire borderlands and I can think of at least two others, but this particular John Wilesmith has parents living in the village of Leigh, near Malvern, and he emigrated Down Under in 1978.

His original idea was to set up a ceramics business, designing and making items for the tourist market, specialising in detailed small animal and bird studies.

To say things didn’t go to plan would be an understatement, for in late 2001 John was struck down by a near-fatal brain aneurysm.

His business came to a full stop and his life almost ended the same way, too. The road to recovery was a steep uphill climb, because he had to re-learn his mental and physical motor skills. Even now he has his not so good days, because one of the effects of the haemorrhaging was short-term memory loss.

John said: “The fish taxidermy really started as a hobby to help me recover from the aneurysm. It’s the sort of thing you can do for an hour, then have a rest and go back to it later. But it’s ideal for me now, allowing me to work in a more limited way making one-off pieces for anglers in my own time, rather than having the pressures the mass production of ceramics brought.

“I’ve always been a stickler for detail and this work lets me indulge that passion in a new way.”

A lifelong fisherman himself, he is also living in a part of the world where there are some very big fish indeed. John said: “Some fishermen who land huge fish like to see their catch preserved on the wall to remember the great day when they caught a ‘monster’ but preserving a fish long-term in excellent condition is not an easy task.”

Using the latest techniques available and the best quality materials, mainly sourced from the US, he has managed to devise a method of preserving these fish quite wonderfully, utilising traditional taxidermy techniques combined with fibreglass moulding and ceramic decoration skills, which combine to produce life-like renditions of the fish for anglers to keep and display as a permanent reminder of their best catches.

The technique involves first making a plaster mould of the fish and then completely skinning it.

All traces of flesh are removed from the skin, which is then treated with preservative.

Meanwhile, a foam mannequin is produced to the exact shape and dimensions of the original fish and the skin attached to it.

Once thoroughly dry the model is then painted all over using a fine airbrush and photos of the original fish for accurate colour reference.

Which is where John’s skills as a former ceramic artist come into their own.

He grew up in Malvern and went to the Chase High School, leaving there in 1976 to work for Hereford Fine China in Ledbury. In 1978 he emigrated to New Zealand to work for a subsidiary china company in Hamilton, finally leaving after four years to set up his own ceramics mould making business. After selling this he returned to Britain and worked for Royal Worcester, before going back to Australia on holiday in the early 1990s, where he met his partner Tania and they settled in Tasmania.

John said: “I had established a ceramics business, we’d had a young boy and all was going well.

Then at the end of 2001 I had a brain haemorrhage. I was in a coma for two weeks and my family came out from Britain not knowing whether I would survive. I had two operations on my brain and I’ve managed to pull through. But I had to give up the ceramics business and I’ve been on a slow road to recovery eversince.

“I’m still on medication, have regular check-ups and suffer side effects such as lethargy and headaches. Fortunately I have retained my motor skills and eye for detail, although I’m not able to work for long periods.

“I was always keen on fishing as a lad and took up taxidermy during my convalescence. It has many similar skills to ceramics, such as mould making and painting and it has been a natural progression for me.”

Many of the wild rivers of Tasmania are home to a wide variety of impressive fish that anglers are keen to have preserved and mounted, so John’s new business has taken off in a big way locally.

But his reputation is growing and his website – airbrushedtolife.com – is getting hits from a much wider audience, in fact, from all over the world.

From The Chase and fine china to Tasmania and huge brown trout, it’s been a long, winding and rocky road for John Wilesmith.

We wish him well in this season of goodwill.