Four years ago a good friend and client, Davey Hughes, asked me if I wanted to mount a life-size moose for him. Davey partly owns Swazi Apparel, an outdoor and hunting clothing brand where everything is made in a factory here in New Zealand. He told me that he was about to go on a moose hunt in the Yukon and had the idea of having a life-size moose mount in his shop at his Swazi Apparel factory. The idea was that a moose mount would be a great draw-card for people driving past to call into the shop. I was keen to take on the project and we talked over a few ideas and how I wanted it skinned, etc. Once I received the cape and lay it out on the floor to rehydrate, I first started to realize just what a big job I had taken on! I had mounted lifesize grizzly bears, fallow and sika deer, and a lion, etc., but this was just huge, and I knew that although the basic principles apply for any mount when it comes to alterations, antler setting, and eye placement, etc., the logistics of mounting such a big animal had to be thought through.
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