# Animal Skulls



## Scarypumpkinpie (Feb 1, 2012)

Has anyone ever made their own animal skulls out of the actual animal head? Like the way a taxidermist would do a skull mount? I want to use some real animal skulls in one of my scenes for our haunted woods this year. I already have 3 deer skulls, which are small. My sister donated those to my cause, since her family hunts deer. They had already cleaned them. Now I need a couple of larger skulls, I am thinking cows. I called the local butcher and he said he would be happy to give me all the cow heads I want for free LOL. Problem is, they are the whole head, freshly killed. I watched some tutorials on you tube showing how to do a skull mount with a deer head. I am hoping to accomplish the same with some cow heads. My sister & her family did theirs by basically leaving them staked in the ground outdoors in the weather, allowing scavengers to do the work. But, I do not have anywhere I could take these and avoid that horrible smell. It also took about 10 months or so she said before they were completely cleaned that way. There are different methods of achieving a skull mount, but the "bury then dig up" method looks easiest. You basically clean it the best as you can with a knife, bury them for a couple months, dig them up & hose them off. Then you can go through further steps to whiten them and such, but I don't think I want that. I will basically just dunk them in a tub of bleach to kill off any lingering bacteria, and be done. I want them to look as though they have laid outdoors and rotted, leaving just the head and some scattered skeletal remains. To keep animals from carrying my bones off, I plan to make my skeltal remains out of wood and foam, then paint them. I will just put a nail in some trees to hang my skulls up on when we close up after hours to discourage anything from chewing them or dragging them off. But, I think the bleach smell will be enough to ward off would be scavengers such as dogs. Has anyone else ever tried using this method to get some real skulls? Did it work if you did? I want to stay away from paper mache as I dont think it will hold up to repeated exposure of dew falling on it outside after dark. This also sounded easier than carving them our of foam or plaster. Our budget is pretty tight this year as I have most of it tied up in advertisement and buying electrical wire to expand our scenes. So, getting these for free also adds to the appeal of the idea.


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

I plan on making a couple of cat skulls this year using the method AllenH showed in his video on making shrunken heads. Basically it uses a styrofoam ball as a base and then foil is wrapped around it to make the form and then covered with liquid nail. 
I would think the liquid nail would hold up to moisture fairly well or even better after painting or staining.
A cow skull could be made in the same manor by using a larger ball (plastic toy, ect), and foil. 
Check out the video and see if it might work for you.

http://www.youtube.com/user/StiltbeastStudios?feature=mhee


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

We have a few deer skulls we're going to turn into props (hopefully) this year. Mother Nature had already done the pick-clean thing for us, so all we've done as an additional treatment is soak them in some diluted bleach.

I'm a big fan of papier mache, but it does mean you need to be careful about sealing mache surfaces to minimize the chances of moisture ruining all your hard work. If you decide to go with this technique, check out Stolloween's web site (www.stolloween.com) and in particular The Basics (http://www.stolloween.com/?page_id=209) for guidance on how best to protect your prop.

Aside from that, monster mud is another good choice - a bit messy but very durable. Liquid latex is another possibility.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

You can buy beetles that will clean up bones for you. Taxidemists use these.

http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/kits.html


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I think the main problem would be attaching the heavy head to the rest of the critter.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Jess, keep in mind that a buried skull will not stay buried if you have scavengers of any kind in your area. A dog or fox can easily smell a half-rotted pile of bones underground and will happily go after them. So will a raccoon, coyote, or possibly a skunk.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

That smell is the reason people have traditionally been buried six feet down/deep. Shallower than that and the critters can smell them.

You might look at the methods the coroners and taxidermists use, maggots and or boiling the skulls and bones to shed the meaty bits, then bleach or disinfect as desired. Once they are as clean and fragrance free as you would like, you can apply the fake "rotting" flesh to get the desired look.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

"... A dog or fox can easily smell a half-rotted pile of bones ...."

This is why we cannot take my husband tent camping....


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

If you are thinking about boiling the bones, plan on doing it outdoors. The smell is not nice.


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## Scarypumpkinpie (Feb 1, 2012)

When watching the tutorials online they cleaned most of the meat off first, then placed a heavy metal drum over the spot that they buried the deer heads to keep scavengers from digging them up. We have piles of river rock, I thought I could bury them about 3 or four feet under then pile the rocks on top. But, maybe it would just be easier to look into some of the molding products available and just make my own. That seems like it would be the least amount of work involved. Cleaning them, then boiling them, digging the huge hole and all the rest would be a lot of work and time. I already knew about the beatles that the taxidermists use, but I don't want to mess with them really. These skulls are not going to be attached to anything, just laying on the ground. The skeletal remains will be laying there too, but placed in a way that suggests they have been eaten, with a good part of the bones missing. Mostly just a rib cage, maybe the leg bones. With a molding product that could withstand the outdoor weather, I could just leave them in place until after October.


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

My favored technique is to build a small cage out of chicken wire and stake it down to the ground on the back part of my property with the fresh head / body inside. It does stink for a few days. Takes a good year to get clean white bones. No predators have ever been able to move the small cages.


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## Scarypumpkinpie (Feb 1, 2012)

Bone Dancer said:


> I plan on making a couple of cat skulls this year using the method AllenH showed in his video on making shrunken heads. Basically it uses a styrofoam ball as a base and then foil is wrapped around it to make the form and then covered with liquid nail.
> I would think the liquid nail would hold up to moisture fairly well or even better after painting or staining.
> A cow skull could be made in the same manor by using a larger ball (plastic toy, ect), and foil.
> Check out the video and see if it might work for you.
> ...


There are some great videos on there! I found some other stuff to use as well. I might give this liquid nail skull a try! I am familiar with liquid nail already, I use it often in my day job. I agree it will very likely hold up to the moisture after painting. If it doesn't, I can dry it out & patch it with some more liquid nail, touch up the paint, and back into the woods it goes


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## Moxie (Mar 22, 2012)

You should check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/skullery
She cleans up, molds and casts animal skulls out of resin. They're super light and can make them in almost any color


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Moxie said:


> You should check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/skullery
> She cleans up, molds and casts animal skulls out of resin. They're super light and can make them in almost any color


That's a cool shop Moxie. Thanks!


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## Scarypumpkinpie (Feb 1, 2012)

Moxie said:


> You should check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/skullery
> She cleans up, molds and casts animal skulls out of resin. They're super light and can make them in almost any color


Her stuff is pretty cool! I didn't see any in the large sizes I need. Probably because of costs to ship them.


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## Moxie (Mar 22, 2012)

You can also try http://www.skullsunlimited.com/ which you can usually get larger casts or real ones for a relative cheap price


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## Scarypumpkinpie (Feb 1, 2012)

Thank-you Moxie!


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## Moxie (Mar 22, 2012)

Welcome !


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