Rug’Em Taxidermy

Cleaning by day, art by night! 🧼✨
We’re taking the professional-grade cleaning and whitening we do here at Rug’em Taxidermy and turning these Alaskan specimens into finished art for The Last Frontier Furrier.
It’s the same gallery-quality process we use for your trophy mounts—just giving these pieces a "second life" (and a much-needed bath).
Need your harvest cleaned to this standard? Whether it’s for a European mount or a custom display, we’ve got you covered.
📥 DM for cleaning quotes or custom shadow box builds!

Getting ready to take in a couple bears this year—just finished up this 6ft brute.

I personally like mine closed mouth—just looks more natural and has that calm, heavy presence. This one was a fun one to work with and turned out exactly how I like them.

Everything is handled right here in my shop—sewing and taxidermy all in-house (aside from tanning). Your bear never gets passed around or sent off for someone else to finish.

If you’ve got a bear from this season that needs done, send me a message. I only take a limited number each year.

🦴 The Secret to a Museum-Quality Finish

Ever wonder why some bone displays look patchy, yellow, or—worst of all—start to smell after a few months?
It usually comes down to rushing the degreasing stage.

Right now, this skull is sitting in a heated bath to draw out deep-seated lipids. If you skip this, those oils will eventually seep to the surface, ruining the specimen. It’s not the most "glamorous" part of the job, but it’s the difference between a piece that lasts a year and a piece that lasts a lifetime.

The goal? Pure, white, stable bone.

Drop a comment: Can you guess the species based on the dentition? (Hint: check those carnassials!)

When I’m not at the degreasing tanks, I’m at the workbench sewing and crafting furs. See the other side of the studio over at The Last Frontier Furrier

Small skulls can actually be some of the hardest ones to clean properly.

When skulls get this tiny, it creates a couple challenges:

🦴 The size alone makes them difficult to work with. Getting into all the tiny openings and delicate areas takes a lot of patience and precision.

🦷 The teeth are extremely small and easy to miss during the cleaning process. On animals this size, a single grain of leftover tissue can be hard to see with the naked eye.

The photo shows an ermine skull with a quarter next to it for size comparison. Even something this small still requires a careful and thorough cleaning to do it right.

Small doesn’t mean simple.

Skull cleaning is just one of the specialized services we offer at Rugem Taxidermy.
Featured here is a client’s wolf skull currently in the degreasing stage. This is a slow, meticulous process designed to draw natural oils out of the bone. Without proper degreasing, skulls will eventually yellow or develop "grease spots" after whitening. We take the time to do it right so your trophy stays pristine for a lifetime.

Looking to have your harvest preserved? Send us a message to get your skull started on the path to a professional finish.

Another wolverine skull completed. This one is actually from my first wolverine so it will be displayed on the desk in my office.

Still taking in bears!

Rugs, skull cleaning, and full in-house work—no outsourcing. One stop from start to finish, right here in Chugiak.

If you’ve got a bear ready, message me to get on the schedule. Drop-offs by appointment.

Ever seen a black bear playing cards?
Well, now you have.

Not all skulls are done right.

I don’t boil — boiling forces grease deep into the bone, and it eventually seeps back out, yellow and tacky.
Instead, I use a method that keeps the nasal structure intact and pulls the grease out fully, leaving the skull clean, white, and solid for years.

Drop it off raw — I’ll handle the rest, the right way.