Mounting a Lion-Pedestal Shoulder Mount

Finished Mount

Originally the client wanted this lion to be a life-sized mount. It was collected in Tanzania. After over a year of waiting to have the skin shipped from Tanzania, when it arrived from the tannery, there was a lot of damage to the skin. It's not possible to say where the damage took place. Therefore, we decided to do a pedestal shoulder mount.  

The photos below show the process of creating the mount. 

Artificial jaws are fitted to the manikin.

Jaws reattached and ready to mount.

Warthogs - Cute or Ugly?

Mounting a Warthog

Garry mounted a warthog for a customer who collected the animal in Botswana. Warthogs are found in most areas of the southern two-thirds of Africa. The customer wanted the skull cleaned and finished in an antique copper patina. Garry casted the tusks and put the cast tusks into the shoulder mount and the real tusks are in the finished skull. The tusks should be removed every two years and lightly oiled with mineral oil or they will crack. 

Finished Warthog Mount

Cleaned skull with antique copper finish & real tusks inserted.

Warthog form with tusks fitted to manikin.

Warthog tanned cape ready to be added to the form.

Glass eyes are set in clay and form is covered with glue.

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Turing the mount over allows Garry to sew the seams. 

Tusks are added back into the manikin.

Glued and pinned.

 Pins hold everything in place while it dries.

After drying, the skin color is restored with paint.

Finished mount

Mounting a Quebec Caribou

Mounting a Quebec Caribou

Two caribou in velvet that Garry collected in Quebec in September, 2001

Garry mounted this Quebec Caribou for a customer. For those of you interested in the process of creating a large taxidermy mount, here are some photos of the procedure.

Here is the tanned caribou cape and antlers.

This photo shows the ear cartilage removed, the plastic ear liners and glass eyes. The ear liners and eyes come from a taxidermy supply company.

Before the project is started, after measuring the cape and antlers, Garry orders a molded foam manikin from a taxidermy supply company. Here is the caribou form with the antlers attached.

Next, the glass eyes are attached to the manikin using clay.

The eyelids and eyebrows are sculpted in the clay.

Next, the manikin is coated with a special glue (hide paste) for taxidermy.

Here, the skin is ready to be set onto the manikin.

The lip skin needs to be tucked into the slots on the manikin. The mounting stand allows the manikin to be turned so that you can work on it from all sides.

Sewing up the seams!  The mount will need to dry for about 2 weeks.

Finished Quebec Caribou, along with other projects in progress in the shop. The final touches involve epoxy work around the eyes, nose and lips, followed by painting the fleshy areas of the caribou.

This is another finished Quebec Caribou. Note the difference in color of the fur.

Caribou vary a lot in color.

Here's Garry with two caribou with antlers in velvet that he collected on his last trip to Quebec from September 2001. I've named the one mounted on our wall Carlton, and over the holidays he was adorned with gold beads and ornaments. 

Two caribou in velvet that Garry collected in Quebec in September, 2001

Hello, Bear!

Honey, there's a bear in my parking spot!

I came home from work and on opening the garage door, found myself face to face, (well, actually, face to butt) with an 8 foot 3" Alaskan Brown Bear. I knew he was coming, but I guess Garry wanted to surprise me, and he did. This is why I never back into the garage, even with a backup camera on my new car.  There may be things lurking in the dark that need headlights to be seen. 

This bear was an unusual job for Garry, as he didn't mount it himself, but found one already mounted by calling many taxidermists across the country for his customer who wanted one quickly. He had a custom wood base made and did some touch-up work, and he drove it to Illinois. Yes, it fit in the back of the Chevy Suburban! 

Alaskan Brown Bear, 8 ft 3 in.

When I posed I didn't realize it would look like he was eating my head, but the smartass photographer probably did.