I'd like to experiment on one of my own deer and redo the eyes. I'd like to close the lids a little more. This deer was mounted about a month ago, using critter clay on the eyes.
As the archives state, I laid a wet cloth towel over the eyes and covered the deer in plastic 3 days ago (it's about 50 degrees in the shop). The hide is softened, but the clay is not. Should I stay the course, or am I doing something wrong?
By the way, is rewetting hide tanned with lutan-F safe?
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Now that you have the hide softened you can inject water under the skin often and that should do it. What I would do and this is only a guess. I would place the deer on your mounting block and turn the deer so that the water will lay against the clay. Inject the water just above the brow line but not directly on the lid area of the deer. Give it some time and don't rush the process. It is very hard to hydrate the critter clay once it has hardened. Good Luck!
That sounds like a great idea. It's actually starting to soften now.