Ashley Scopes

Two side-by-side views of a taxidermy deer’s base during conservation. In the top image, the surface is damaged with patches of missing texture and exposed white filler. In the lower image, the base has been cleaned and repainted with a more uniform earthy tone, and the deer’s legs are wrapped in plastic for protection.

A life-sized taxidermy stag stands on a display base, its entire upper body and antlers covered in translucent plastic sheeting to protect it during conservation. The restored base underneath is dark and textured to resemble forest floor.

The finishing touch? Woodchip scattered like it’s straight out of a Warhammer diorama—frozen first to kill any pests. Because when it comes to conservation, we don’t just make things look right, we make sure they’re safe, too.

Now ready for display and looking majestic once more!

This elephant skull was accsessable to the public for many years and in which it gained some additions. I removed gum, marbles, matches and wrappers from stores that have long been closed. It'll take a few days to properly deep clean this object as its huge!
#museums #elephant

Just finished conserving this Chinese pipe, and it's so pretty! The bowl(?) Has an illustration of a chicken and a dragon on it and the ends of the pipe has jade covers.

Weird to see this one without crown pools!

If you can persuade then to sit still i don't think it could hurt😁😁

Heres some more photos to go with that last post, the hippo at the entrance of Ipswich Museum and the side-by-side signatures. The paper was used to stabilise a wobbly tusk so was probably shoved in when the hippo was at grab hight by a member of staff.
#museum #YoshioMarkino #Art

Today's interesting find was a scrap of paper wedged into the base of our hippo skull. It's seems to be a Yoshio Markino painting in a magazine, but i cant find a copy of the original painting anywhere! If you find it please message me.

Does this mean I'm a qualified tiger dentist?
*Melamine sponges with distilled water
#taxidermy #museum

Already nabbed for an upcoming exhibition! How exciting!

I found this amazing object when deep cleaning a store basement, it wasn't known about so I hope we can get it on display! Wow!
#Nelson #BattleofTrafalgar #Napoleonic

Amazing job by Carrie here. 👀

Just gave a friend a lift to the mansion, he having a proper look around (2 weeks). Come say hi!
#ipswich #museum

Throughout Decant, I've made a lot of custom crates for objects. All the materials used to make them have been recycled from the old displays! ♻️♻️♻️
#museum

Before and after reattaching a hummingbird head.
22nd August 2023
#museum #taxidermy

Taxidermy heads are safely stored after freezing.
26th July 2024
#museum #taxidermy

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Cleaning the Royal George (swabbing the deck) while Kelvin Thatcher fixes the rigging. I also found a note inside showing where it's moved to over the years. #museums #ships

Carries been rebuilding our glass urn that looks identical to that one! Shes doing an incredible job, Can we borrow it? 👀👀👀 (joking, not joking)

Headless chicken? How about half a chicken! I had to remove the damaged case and this gave me a chance to give it a clean before I reconstructed it. #museum #anatomy #Naturalhistory

Always welcome to!😀

Micheal did an amazing job restoring these, I don't currently have a photo but it's a glow up! We also found this accompanying plaque that would have been on the cross(yet to be cleaned in this photo)

I've built an acrylic top to the cabinet and now we are removing 90% of the type so it's not to heavy for the gallery. Which means alot of careful labeling and packing, this is going to take a few days 🤔 it's crazy how much type there is.

Today's job? Moving an entire cabinet of lead type to another building, youch! 🥲 #printing #museum

Crab complete! Packed up and ready to be displayed. It's hard to show how big this crab is without someone next to it. #museum #conservation

Missing toes? No problem, I cast the missing parts out of plaster from a loose toe and painted it to match. Fun fact a crab toe is called a Dactyl. 🦀💅 #museum #Ipswich #redkingcrab

I've painted the board on which this specimen is mounted a dark green/blue to contrast the reds in the crab to make them pop out! I then spent hours tying each leg down with a fishing line. It's very nearly finished. 🦀🦀🦀 #ifthecrabwasalivethiswouldbeverydifficult #Ipswich #museum

It smelt so bad, but now I've got the remaining guts out from the legs I might survive tying it down. 🦀👍 #crabtastic #pincerperfect

Amazing 😂

Great photo!

Reconstructing a crab in the lab 🦀 #museum #crustationcare #1920s-crabfans