I have a few questions for anyone who has any suggestions. I've mounted deer and elk heads, usually with commercial tans, but I now want to try something new. I recently purchased a wolf pelt with the hopes of making a full mount. After close inspection, I don't feel I want to spend the amount of time involved trying to make corrections/repairs on this particular pelt.
One of my first questions is: If you have a pelt where the pads of the feet are cut away (but the claws are still there), is it possible to recreate feet pads (or whole foot) out of sculpture epoxy? I am assuming that it can be done but will be time consuming and will take a lot of patience.
I've decided to try to make a rug out of the pelt. I want to show it off the best way I can. The biggest repair problems I have are in the head area. First, there is a 1-1/2" tear from the eye toward the nose. I'm aware this can be fixed only to a certain extent. It won't look perfect, but I was wondering if anyone has ideas on how to repair the hole with minimal buildup (for example, using some kind of double-back tape and/or small stitch with strong thin thread). Also, because the tear is in the face, should the repair be made before rehydrating the pelt? I'm finding out that a wolf pelt has a very thin skin and that I'll have to be careful not to rip it up. I may even have to splice in a piece of fur to fill this cut hole.
Another question I have has to do with thin-cut lips. The lips are cut a little short but I thought I would pin them in place permanently. What I wanted to know is if anyone has a good suggestion for the type of glue I should use that will hold it together, or if anyone has tried this and learned the hard way that this doesn't work. I'm doing an open-mouth mount, so I thought I could control it easier.
Both ears have tears in them. I heard that ear liners are the better way to go. Because of how thin the skin is I need suggestions on how to repair the ears. I'm hoping that a good ear epoxy and ear liners will take care of the problem.
These seem to be my main questions. Down the road I want to do a full mount and maybe this information I get will help. I thought I could make everything look O.K. except the feet. I know that the face won't look professional, but this is just for my use. Any answers to these particular questions or any added information on wolves or rug making would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
It sounds as if you are seeking re-assurance ----- so let me re-assure you that you can mount this puppy , and he'll be just fine.
You basically know what to do, all the methods and ideas that you mentioned should work fine.
First, decide whether you want to do a rug or full mount--you can do either one.
If you make a full mount, you can re-create the pads, but also make sure that everything else is there-(you don't want to find out later that 6 inches of belly skin has been removed)
If you are going to do a rug, then forget about the pads, you don't need them anyway.
Assuming that you will rug this critter, I would sew the hole with very fine super-braid fishing line. if you are careful, the repair will be almost invisible, and certainly nothing that will detract from the mount.
earliners will give you something to glue the ear skin to, (try to keep epoxy out of the hair though, or clean immediately).
the lips shouldn't be a problem at all, even if they were trimmed at the hair line, you could still mount them(I would use a 5 minute epoxy to glue them in place)--if you have even 1/4 inch of skin, you can tuck them.(grind out the mouth cavity, then make a thin slot around the perimeter of the mouth, tuck the lips and pin until dry, then blend the lip transition area with sculpting epoxy)
It sounds as if you have all the basic knowledge, you just need to convince yourself that the results WILL look professional, You won't get competition quality, but you can certainly get a beautiful, professional mount.
Your attitude can make the difference.
Good Luck,
Dave