The Fox and the Lobster

You may remember that back in January I did my first shoulder mount of a fox. Last week I finally finished the fox and brought him home.

Photo by Allis Markham

The finishing work took about three hours working one-on-one with my teacher, Allis Markham. First we shampooed and conditioned the fox's fur and used a blow dryer to make it fluffy. Then we used epoxy putty to carefully make some repairs to his nose, lips, and eyelids. We mixed paint colors to find a close match to the fox's natural coloring, and carefully painted his lips, nose, and eyelids. We also used glossy Mod Podge to give a "wet" sheen to the finished skin to make it look more life-like. Lastly we carefully cleaned and styled him once more before attaching him to the wooden plaque.

And now he's done! He hangs out around our bar.

Meanwhile, last July I found a perfectly intact molted lobster shell in Malibu and brought it home to preserve. I put it in the freezer but only now got around to displaying it properly.

 

 

Dev and I worked together on this one. First we cleaned the shell with vinegar and distilled water, scrubbing away sand and debris with a toothbrush, rinsed it, and then soaked it overnight in distilled water. After cleaning, it no longer had any leftover "fishy" odor. Then we carefully "posed" the shell (for example, arranging the antennae symmetrically), pinned it, and let it dry. It actually took several days of repeated wetting, posing, and drying to get it to form the proper shape without damaging it.

 

 

Finally, we sprayed it with a spray lacquer to preserve the shell's color and mounted it in glass display box. Now he can join the animals on our living room shelves.

 

Later this spring I'm going to get some more practice eviscerating raccoons with Allis, getting ready for the full-body badger mount I want to do in the fall.