Making a bear model yourself is a rather laborious process, however, if you want to decorate your house with a scarecrow of a bear, you need to get the necessary material, allocate time for this lesson and get to work.
Necessary materials
To make it you will need: the body of a bear, obtained during the hunt; common table salt; skin tanning oil; frame material (papier-mâché, gypsum, steel wire or clay); plastic eyes. Of the tools will be involved: a scalpel, a well-ground knife and thread with a needle.
The process of making a stuffed bear needs to start with skin removal. An incision with a scalpel is best done from the abdomen, simultaneously removing the internal organs of the bear. Separate the skin from the body itself very carefully so as not to damage the finished material. Hold the skin with one hand, with the other, make smooth movements with a knife between the skin and body. This procedure must be done throughout the body area.
Stuffed head
However, if you are going to make a stuffed bear’s head, you need to cut off only the head and neck in the area of the shoulder blades. Try to remove as many pieces of meat and sebum as possible from future skins in both cases.
After removing the skin of the bear, it must be hollowed out. To do this, you need table salt, but it should not be iodized. Start rubbing the back of the bear’s skin without much effort, the salt layer should be about two centimeters. After this procedure, leave the skin for one day alone. After 24 hours, shake the old salt off the skin and repeat the procedure, but this time put the skin in a cool place to dry. When the bear's skin dries, rinse it thoroughly with cool water from salt. After washing, rub it with warm tanning oil and leave the skin in a cool place before you pull it on a stuffed skeleton.
Plaster, clay or papier-mâché for foundation?
For making the stuffed animal, gypsum, papier-mâché, clay and steel wire are used. If you use plaster or clay, you will need a lot of this material, you need to have small sculpting skills. When using papier-mâché, also make a steel wire frame, trying to make as many intermediate arcs as possible in the abdominal region. Then start applying papier-mâché on a steel wire frame. If using gypsum or clay, make a model of the future stuffed animal and let the sculpture dry.
When the dummy and skin are ready, begin fastening the skin on the dummy. This process is recommended from the base of the abdominal cavity. Smooth out any bumps that will occur when pulling the skin. After you pull the skin on the mannequin, sew all the cuts on the bear's skin. Use sturdy, matching colors. Insert the plastic eyes into the eye area on the head. Scarecrow is ready.