Dry Season, Carved Bison Skull

The ground it came out of was cracked long before it was.

Nothing on it is broken

Every plate is exactly where we put it. The fractures are cut into the model, not damage, and they run the way real hardpan dries: big slow plates across the forehead, breaking finer and faster down the muzzle, because thin ground always goes first.

Put a lamp anywhere near it and the whole surface starts throwing shadows into its own channels. It is the only thing we make that people reach out and touch before they ask what it costs.

The plain one is SPECIMEN 004

Same skull, no carving, clean bone. If you want the specimen rather than the artwork, that is the one.

The horns are left alone on purpose

Smooth ridged horn against the face is the contrast that makes the piece work. It is also the honest choice, because horn does not crack the way ground does.

Why it is not a longhorn

A longhorn is horizontal. All span, all wall. A bison is vertical mass, all forehead, and it wants a different spot in a different room. It is also far more sensible to send, because a 620 millimetre horn span is billed on volume and this is not.

Never an animal

No bone, no beetle cleaning, no import permit, no smell, and nothing died for it. It weighs what a printed object weighs, a fraction of the real thing, and it will not yellow in a hot room the way real bone does.

How it sits

Free standing. There is no hanger and no bracket in the box. A wall mounted version is coming, and if that is the one you want, say so and you will be first to know.

Looking after it

Out of direct sun, because PLA softens around 60 degrees. Dust with a soft dry brush rather than a cloth. Lift it by the skull, not by the horns.

The numbers

• Printed in sections and bonded in Australia, then carved and finished by hand.
• SPECIMEN 005. That number belongs to this design and will never be given to another.
• Dimensions to be confirmed.

How it is made

Modelled from scratch, printed here on our own machines, then cleaned up, finished and packed by hand. Nothing is outsourced and nothing is cast, so every piece carries faint layer lines and no two come out quite identical. We could sand those out. We would rather you could see it was made than see it was manufactured.

PLA, which is a corn-starch derived plastic. It is rigid, it holds fine detail better than almost anything else at this price, and it has one weakness worth knowing: it softens at around 60 degrees. A sunny windowsill in February is the one place it should never live.

Ordering one now

Everything here is made to order. Nothing sits in a box waiting, which is why you are not paying for a warehouse. Order it and yours goes into the next batch, usually within a fortnight, and you are emailed when it goes on the bed and again when it ships.

Change your mind before it is printed and we refund it in full without asking why. After that you still have every right you have under Australian Consumer Law, which we cannot exclude and would not want to.