Date of Birth: 1954
Place of Birth: South Africa
Location: Cairns, Australia
Date of Death: 1993
Burial Location: Phuket, Thailand
The name Ian Pike is synonymous with fish and marine taxidermy in Australia. He has long been considered the master artist behind the revolutionary technique now used by the majority of marine taxidermists around the world, of fiberglass direct molding of fish and marine specimens.
Ian developed and mastered the fiberglass direct casting technique, and in doing so enabled artists to eliminate the traditional process of having to cast specimens using casting plaster, before producing a positive in fiberglass that could be recopied into a permanent fiberglass mold.
Born in South Africa, Ian Pike immigrated to Australia during the 1960s, when the family had sought to escape the civil unrest of that country. Ian’s parents had owned one of the largest tanneries in South Africa, and taxidermy, naturally, had been a large part of the family enterprise. Once in Australia the Pike family established gold mining businesses, as well as opal and other forms of Gem stone enterprises. They also established a coffee plantation in Papua New Guinea to the north of Australia, as well as other gemstone mines there. The entire family was driven by innovation and business venture.
Ian’s workshop in Cairns would often have a lot going on within its walls. Apart from the Big Game fish that were being processed for the anglers off the Great Barrier reef of Queensland, gemstones were being cut and polished as well as fish skins tanned for the lucrative fashion markets of France.
Ians time was an era where Big Game fishing in Australia and around the world was in full swing, and he was instrumental in the development of casting techniques that where to revolutionize the high quality reproductive molding of specimens in practice today. Ian’s process and techniques would soon become the masters standard that we see within the taxidermy industry today.
Experimenting with direct cast methods using polyester casting resins, Ian was able to master the art of direct fish reproduction, without the intermediate step of plaster casting. This revolutionary procedure allowed the taxidermist to obtain a direct detailed fiberglass impression of the fish subject without the cumbersome step of plaster casting, which so often caused collapse of the specimen being molded due to the over weight of plaster and reinforcing needed on the larger game species.
This new technique allowed Ian to directly process Marlin specimens as large as 1500 1bs on the tidal edges of marine islands off the coast of Queensland, without the damages caused by transport handling and dehydration so often encountered by conventional retrieval practices employed by game boats back to mainland workshops.
Steve Mathews, an employee of Ian Pike and master fish taxidermist in far North Queensland recounts, “In the 1970s and 1980s, Ian would charter planes and fly to remote islands with a crew of men and all our equipment to take the molds of these giant fish that we pulled up onto the beach with our bare hands”
A witness to this process in action described, “The Game Boat Charters would deliver huge Game fish to Islands, like Lizard Island off the coast of Queensland, and Ian would have erected sun shades literally on the beach. Then he and his staff would begin the process of direct fiberglass molding huge marlin and sailfish.”
As one observer commented, ‘He took the workshop to the fish”.
Ian and his crew innovated the use of a plaster slurry boarder surrounds to facilitate the creation of fiberglass mold flanges in his direct cast process over the fresh specimens. Traditionally in the commercial sense, large game fish had only ever been cast single sided for presentation on the wall. Ian’s unique direct cast method would enable the artists to capture incredible detail of Big Game fish in double sided fiberglass molds done directly on the beach that only moments before had been swimming within the oceans of the Great Barrier Reef.
The detail that Ian was able to execute from this direct molding method coupled with his attention to colours and the use of pigmented grinds, soon had the attention of enthusiasts from around the world. Hollywood movie greats like Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas (Kojak) and Ernest Borgnine were regulars to the Great Barrier reef and his workshop, whilst golfing legends Greg “The Shark” Norman and Jack Nicholas would often visit for his services .
Ian and his staff prepared over 500 display mounts for Tom Bolack, the Governor of New Mexico USA, who at the time was the owner of the largest private natural history museum in the world. Each of those specimens were individually molded using his advanced technique. It was a project that ran over 10 years and was completed in conjunction with Mike Kirkhart of New Wave Taxidermy of Florida USA. All were Australian species and Tom Bolack would fish 3 months of the year in Australia for specimens for that museum.
By 1993 Ian and his staff had built a factory in Thailand on the island of Phuket with the vision of opening a facility to accommodate the growing Big Game Fishing industry within that region. Tragedy struck that same year when Ian was killed in a motor bike crash in Thailand.
Ian was only 39 and in the prime of his career.
His molds and equipment were subsequently sold off by tender. The vast majority were fortunately retained in Australia and have been the leading example of the quality fish work that has been maintained within Australia ever since. Even today fish molds produced some 50 years ago are being used to win major taxidermy awards in Masters level competitions. It is a tribute to this man’s unique skills and qualities.
A number of his staff has since continued to be successful and pioneering taxidermists in the field of marine specimens, a legacy to an individual who set the standards for Big Game Fish Taxidermy, not only within Australia, but around the world.
Ian’s true legacy was his willingness to share the knowledge and techniques that he masterfully created and developed, a quality that has enabled many taxidermists from around the globe to advance in the techniques of Big Game fish reproductions and airbrushing.
During his time Ian created over 1000 molds of a host of marine specimens, most in double sided or complex moldings, and a number of which, like the Great White shark, are now highly protected around the world. It is only through efforts such as his, that taxidermist’s, museums and the public at large, have the opportunity to appreciate and enjoy the wonders of our global oceans.
