As it usually works, I received a turkey yesterday that was mounted elsewhere. Mounted is a relative term here since this has to be the most terrible bird mount I have ever seen. The freeze-dried head has one eye that is almost closed due to the upper and lower lids covering the glass eye. I took this work due to the fact that the customer has a lot of work done yearly and has seen the error of ways for trying to save $$. I am also redoing 2 crappies for him and have made it well worth my time.
My question is this; can I rehydrate the eye area of this head to repair it or just cut the lids away and make the repair with epoxy? The customer has no preference since I will be repainting the head anyway.
Please don't flame me for criticizing another taxidermists work. I don't know who mounted this bird but it is a disgrace to the taxidermy industry and all customers deserve better than this trash. There are tons of flaws that were not even mentioned here. Thanks.
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I'd take a little laquer thinner and remove the paint from the lids and then place a wet paper towel over them and let it sit. I'd check it every 20 min or so. It should allow you to work the eyelids. You may not be able to move them as much as you need to. In which case, you'll have no choice but to cut them off and resculpt.
After you have stripped the paint from the head, moisten the offending eyelid with a small artist's brush and plain water. (It might need a couple of moistenings.) Gently lift it away from the eye and re-pose it. It should be dry in only a few hours, at which point you can re-paint the head.
Freeze-dried heads CAN be re-hydrated and posed somewhat, but they are very prone to shrinkage whenever it's done. Sometimes that is the only way to correct those horribly over-inflated sausage-like snoods, though. In those cases, a little bit of shrinkage is a GOOD thing!
Nancy is better in limiting her wet area, but a freeze dried head is nothing less than a compressed dry sponge. Once the water hits it, it's like the meatloaf in and MRE pack. It sucks the water up. There's a lot of tissue inside that skin that's NOT going to dry properly. If it was me, I'd buy a new head and add it to the customers end costs. OR I'd cut off the offending tissue and Apoxie it back .
If you use rubbing alcohol or laquer thinner, it should soften the tissue the same as water would, but it will dry much quicker. I would use Nancy's approach, though. Keep wetting the eyelids with a brush until you can move them. Don't be in too big of a rush to paint them. I'd give them plenty of time to dry and make sure they hold their position. If you paint them too soon you will be more apt to seal the moisture in (I would suspect that's not good regardless of what the source of moisture is).
I would cut that bad boy off and sculpt in a new eyelid. I ordered heads from Anthony Eddy, and they had plastic eyerings. You could make some with Apoxie Sculpt, and not have to worry about getting the head too wet. I'm sure your work will look great, whichever method you chose. And hopefully more customers will realise that they get what they pay for. A cheap mount is usually an ugly one, lol!
All you need to do is INJECT a little alcohol in the lid and it becomes moveable instantly. Pin the lid in the position you like and let it set in front of a fan overnite and you will be able to paint it the next day. DO NOT PUT WATER ON IT! The alcohol evaporates without leaving much of a stain and it does not make the head rot as water would. Any freeze dried turkey head can be "repaired" in this manner. Sometimes the lids are not what you like so you can change them as well as symmetry of the bill,etc.