The Broken Bear

When a full-size taxidermy bear falls off a wall, something is broken. Maybe the wall broke, or maybe the base broke, or the taxidermy broke. Unfortunate for my client, all three occurred with the latter two a direct cause of the first.

Bear with damaged ear and base from falling off the wall.

When it came through my door, this meant I was in charge of repairing the bear and its base. The bear itself was in great condition considering it fell a significant distance. The original taxidermist did beautiful work and only its ear shattered from the blow.  The base, was a hollow construction to look like rock. The fall made the base feel unsound and its face needed reconstruction.

The repair started with the ear first. The old, broken hide and ear liner were completely removed. A dark ear was sourced and made to match the size and shape. Once the ear was taxied on its new ear liner, Sally Hanson’s peroxide was used to lighten the dark fur to match the cinnamon color. Once the color was finalized, the ear was epoxied in place.

To make the base structurally stable and provide a surface to make the new rock face, two-part foam was used to fill the cavity. It is this point that I used foam pieces (that are unable to be recycled) to add additional volume. I wanted the base to be solid.  Once two-part foam expanded and cured to meet the edge of the rock, papier-mâché was mixed and sculpted into place. All cracks were filled and any irregularities from the damage was covered with the mâché. When the mâché was dry, it was colored/painted to match the original rock surface before being sealed.

The little cinnamon bear returned home with a sturdy two piece hanger system to ensure it safely stays in place.