Barry (Steve Carell) and his dead mice dioramas. The movie used plastic molds.
These mice are now men.
A bizarre Victorian hobby that transforms dead mice into miniature "humans" is getting its revival in -- where else -- hipster Brooklyn.
A Gowanus gallery offering a $45 class in "anthropomorphic taxidermy" today sold out in four hours.
For inspiration, the gallery will have a punk-rocker mouse with green hair and a Hamlet mouse cloaked in a cape on hand for the class.
They look like sculptures, but the figurines were once living, breathing, scurrying rodents.
"It looks less like an animal and more like a weird art project," said Susan Jeiven, 39, a tattoo artist and taxidermist who'll teach the class at Observatory art space.
The three-hour stuffing session is not for the squeamish.
Jeiven buys the frozen vermin from snake-feed stores, then thaws them out and sucks out their blood with a syringe.
On class day, students will clean out the mice's innards with razors and remove their bones. Borox and strong chemicals are applied to preserve their coats.
Then the artistry gets under way, with the students shaping molds out of clay, sewing on the preserved skins, and using wires to set the mice into odd poses.
Jeiven is a purist, so her mice will be dressed in Victorian bloomers and vintage doll clothing.
Read more at NY Post.
Why do these people call themselves "hipsters" and not "shmucks"?
