What Happens Next?

Now we have your order we will schedule for production.

The steps involved in the production of your animal are;

1. Pattern marking and cutting

The pattern for your animal is marked out by hand on full grain cowhide leather tanned specifically for our purposes. As the markings, stretch, thickness etc on each hide vary we are careful to select the area of leather we feel best suits your animal.  Once the hide has been fully marked out with a range of animals, the pieces are cut out by hand and passed through for sewing sewing.

2. Stuffing Room

Once sewn, it is here the transformation of your animal takes place. And a lot of hard physical work! The interior cavity of the leather is filled with a metal and wooden frame around which layers of finely cut woodwool is moulded and sculpted. The woodwool is compressed tightly into the body cavity using hand tools. There is no mechanical process to lighten the load! This is the lengthiest stage of the production cycle; the average time is 4-6 hours for a standard/ medium sized animal rising to 2 days for a superking rhino!

4. Staining Room

The leather we use is “unfinished” which means it has not been pre dyed or coated with an acrylic finish. We hand stain each animal using a water soluble stain, always in a mahogany brown. A waterproofing wax  (water based) is applied to “antique” the colour finish and seal in the stain. The final stage is to attach the eyes so your animal can see and apply a coat of button polish to give a nice shine.

5. Quality Inspection

Checks on quality are carried out at each stage of the production process. The final check is made prior to dispatch ensuring the overall appearance of the animal meets our expectations. We attempt to avoid unslightly scarring, cuts in the leather at the pattern marking stage; natural markings however are all considered to be part of the animals character.