Trompe l'oeil Paper Sculpture

Etsy seller Vegan Taxidermy constructs critters out of crepe paper, wire, styrofoam and papier mache and they're almost as convincing as the real thing.

These days, taxidermy and conservation might seem to run at cross purposes outside the dim halls of natural history museums. Those dioramas come from a time when field science was rather more dangerous to wildlife than it is today. Artist Aimee Baldwin's unusual sculptures, which she calls vegan taxidermy, remove the inconvenient contradiction between loving nature and stuffing it. See her work through July 15 at Castle in the Air, a shop on Berkeley's Fourth Street.

No birds were harmed in the making of this display.

No peppers were stuffed for this taxidermy. Or tomatoes or birds, for that matter. Berkeley, CA-based artist Aimée Baldwin–whose realistic three-dimensiona

Taxidermy for vegetarians!