Just want to put this up for reference since I sometimes see pelts that, though they have lips split
Just want to put this up for reference since I sometimes see pelts that, though they have lips split (for tucking), cartilage cleared from the nose, and ears turned (opened up), they appear to lack any inner eye skin. The eyes are arguably the most important part of a mount so it frustrates me to see nice furs having all the qualities of a mountable pelt but this one.This is a beautiful wolf pelt that I recently received, perfectly prepped for taxidermy. These photos show one of the eyes. Generally, THIS is how a correctly prepped eye should look. You shouldn’t be able to see straight through it; it shouldn’t be a gaping black hole. If there is inner eye skin available for tucking, it will “fill up” much of the space inside the eye hole. From the inside, you should be able to grab it between your fingers and pull it away from the rest of the pelt, as seen in the photo on the right.Now, I don’t need that much, but hey, always better to start with more than you need than not enough. Before mounting I would cut that eye skin down to ½, maybe 1/3 of what you see here. A pelt without any inner eye skin at all can still be mounted, but the final product rarely looks as good, or requires so much babysitting as the skin dries to keep it from pulling away from the eyes and ruining their shape. In some cases (if the skin hasn’t been shaved down too thin) it’s possible to “create” this extra skin with a sharp blade and a careful hand, but not always… and while better than nothing, the result usually isn’t as nice as what you get when you start with what you see in the photos above.I hope this helps! -- source link
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