The mount is the animal. The habitat is where it was. We build sculpted rock, water, snow, woodland, and African ground for a single pedestal or a room-sized scene, designed alongside the pose so the animal and the ground agree.
A bull elk on a plain panel is a good mount. The same elk standing in September grass with a broken aspen limb behind him is a place, a season, and a morning you remember. That is the difference habitat makes, and it works best when the pose and the ground are planned together: where the weight sits, where the eye goes, and how the piece fits the wall or corner it is going to live in.
We build habitat for hunters and anglers who want one mount to carry a story, and for lodges, businesses, and collectors who need several pieces to work as a group. Species mounts are priced on our price list; habitat is quoted per project on top of the mount.
More finished pieces are in our recent mounts gallery and water sculpture scenes.
Sculpted and painted to a specific geology rather than a generic grey lump: ledges, outcrops, river stone, shale, alpine cliff. Real rock is far too heavy for a wall, so ours is built light and hollow over a frame.
Shown: mountain goat wall pedestal on a sculpted ledge.
The hardest thing in this trade to do well. Standing water, moving water, a duck’s wake, breaking waves, and the ice edge. We have built water scenes several feet across for Alaskan waterfowl displays.
Shown: wood duck on cast water with wake.
Drifted snow, crusted snow, icicles on rock, and shelf ice at the water’s edge, built so it reads as cold from across the room without looking like cotton.
Shown: mountain lion on a snow-covered ledge.
Leaf litter, grasses, cattails, deadfall, rubbed saplings, oak and maple branches, cornfield edge, and prairie grass, chosen for the season the animal was taken.
Shown: wood duck pair on a fall woodland base.
Red soil, thorn scrub, acacia, and dry grass for plains game pedestals and multi-animal African groupings. Bases are sized so a collection reads as one landscape.
Shown: giraffe pedestal with acacia on a red-soil base.
A shoulder or half mount on a sculpted ledge, log, or tree that comes off the wall. Adds scene without using floor space; the bear and goat above are both wall habitats.
Groundwork under a pedestal mount: rock, snow, grass, or water inside a finished oak, walnut, or painted base. The most common upgrade for deer, bear, and sheep pedestals.
The whole animal on a base built to the room, from a coyote on prairie grass to a mountain lion on a boulder. We plan the footprint before we build so it fits through the door.
Two or more animals on one base: a duck pair on water, a predator-and-prey scene, or an African grouping. The Three Kings and the Bering Sea build are both multi-animal displays.
There is no rate card for habitat, because a display is a design problem rather than a product. The mount itself is priced on our published price list. The habitat is quoted on top of that, and the number moves with:
Tell us the animal and the idea and we will put a number on it in writing.
Usually, yes. Send photos of the mount and how it is currently based, and tell us what you have in mind. Re-basing an existing mount is common work for us.
Sometimes. It is easier and better when planned with the mount, because the pose and the ground are designed together, but many mounts can be re-based after the fact.
It is quoted per project. Size, complexity, materials, and the number of animals drive it. Send us the idea and we will price it.
No. It is sculpted and painted. Real rock is far too heavy for a wall or a shipped display, and sculpted rock can be shaped to the exact geology and footprint the piece needs.
Institutional habitat and diorama work is handled by our sister company, Epic Journey Designs, and you can also see our museum and institutional work.
We will put the habitat in writing alongside the mount price before anything is built.