Displaying snake skin

I work in paintings conservation and often enjoy framing the
paintings that I conserve however, I am a bit out of my element with
the following project. A client asked me to mount a 5 foot snake
skin so that it may be enclosed in a Plexiglas box for display. I
intend on using a reversible, nondestructive mounting system and  do
not want to pierce the skin in any way.

My current solution  is to cut an rag mat support slightly smaller
than the outside dimensions of the skin, a "spine" if you will, and
heat tack the skin with Beva (371)  Film to the rag mat at a few key
spots. This supported skin could then be easily mounted to the
strainer support base.

I am curious as to how others might attack this serpentine problem.
I am especially interested in the input of a taxidermist/objects
conservator with experience in mounting animal specimens. My query
to the framing conservation list did not produce much of a response
unfortunately.

Chris Kenney

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:75
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 23, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-75-013
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