What I do is take doe deer skulls, that are either thrown away or I find. Clean them up and then use them as a base to sculpt on to make these. The fun thing is watching people pick one up and try to figure out if it's real or not. Because elements of the deer skull are still there, I don't completely sculpt over it. No two are the same either. I've also made them into unicorns, griffons and one raptor for someone who requested one.
Problem is they take a long time to make because have to wait for each layer of the sculpting compound (Apoxy-Sculpt , name brand, used in taxidermy) to harden. It's cool stuff, because can smooth it with water like clay when wet and when dry can drill it, sand it, paint it and has no shrinkage. Just takes 24 hours to fully air harden though. But it's not cheap, a lot of people I know use it for jewelry making and smaller sculptures, as a master to cast from because it holds details well. I don't make many unicorns only because I prefer the skulls to then have their front teeth. Unfortunately those are the teeth in a deer that often fall out and are lost by the time I get the skulls. They're small teeth and hard to sculpt in if they're missing. And don't look right when I have. I'm good, but I do have limitations.
That's fair. It looks like your process really pays off, though! Would you have difficulties with other air-dry clays, are they prone to shrinkage or do they stick less effectively?
Aah I see. Teeth are shockingly difficult to get right! That's actually,, my day job? I make dental restorations.
Yes, and yes on both questions. I tried a couple different brands and nothing works as well Apoxy-Sculpt. It's a two part epoxy that was specifically designed for the taxidermy trade to probably restore broken horn, or to press into ears if they didn't have liners. It doesn't break all that easy once cured I found too. If it does break it's usually a clean break and easy to glue back together. Deer have 8 front teeth and only on the bottom jaws. The middle two are about as large as our front lower teeth, but the others are like silvers (and progressively get smaller from the middle ones) and they narrow to the outside and sort of have a slight curve. Really hard to explain, little alone sculpt.
I see!! That's fair. Unfortunate it's expensive, but if it gets such excellent results, I can see how it'd be worth it.
I just looked up some skulls, and I see the problem. It's a delicate little space, and I can see how those would be lost easily. All of the final shaping on porcelain&zirconia restorations is done with little dremel tools, and it's kind of wild to get into the flow of what makes a tooth look natural.
![[Art] Dragon Skull Sculpture](https://storage.googleapis.com/paperdemon-prod-la/submissions/thumbs/art_45995_thumb_cf7ec7e630955f3214c1e94abd705550618eb6d09b751.jpg)
That all sounds so fun aaah. a deer-based unicorn sounds great
It's cool stuff, because can smooth it with water like clay when wet and when dry can drill it, sand it, paint it and has no shrinkage. Just takes 24 hours to fully air harden though. But it's not cheap, a lot of people I know use it for jewelry making and smaller sculptures, as a master to cast from because it holds details well.
I don't make many unicorns only because I prefer the skulls to then have their front teeth. Unfortunately those are the teeth in a deer that often fall out and are lost by the time I get the skulls. They're small teeth and hard to sculpt in if they're missing. And don't look right when I have. I'm good, but I do have limitations.
Aah I see. Teeth are shockingly difficult to get right! That's actually,, my day job? I make dental restorations.
Deer have 8 front teeth and only on the bottom jaws. The middle two are about as large as our front lower teeth, but the others are like silvers (and progressively get smaller from the middle ones) and they narrow to the outside and sort of have a slight curve. Really hard to explain, little alone sculpt.
I just looked up some skulls, and I see the problem. It's a delicate little space, and I can see how those would be lost easily. All of the final shaping on porcelain&zirconia restorations is done with little dremel tools, and it's kind of wild to get into the flow of what makes a tooth look natural.