Ashley Scopes
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ashleyscopes.bsky.social
Ashley Scopes
@ashleyscopes.bsky.social
Artist, Ipswich Museum assistant, Natural history fan, 24
Reposted by Ashley Scopes
The finishing touch? Woodchip scattered like it’s straight out of a Warhammer diorama—frozen first to kill any pests. Because when it comes to conservation, we don’t just make things look right, we make sure they’re safe, too.

Now ready for display and looking majestic once more!
May 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM
This elephant skull was accsessable to the public for many years and in which it gained some additions. I removed gum, marbles, matches and wrappers from stores that have long been closed. It'll take a few days to properly deep clean this object as its huge!
#museums #elephant
April 8, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Just finished conserving this Chinese pipe, and it's so pretty! The bowl(?) Has an illustration of a chicken and a dragon on it and the ends of the pipe has jade covers.
April 4, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Today's interesting find was a scrap of paper wedged into the base of our hippo skull. It's seems to be a Yoshio Markino painting in a magazine, but i cant find a copy of the original painting anywhere! If you find it please message me.
March 25, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Does this mean I'm a qualified tiger dentist?
*Melamine sponges with distilled water
#taxidermy #museum
March 24, 2025 at 3:17 PM
I found this amazing object when deep cleaning a store basement, it wasn't known about so I hope we can get it on display! Wow!
#Nelson #BattleofTrafalgar #Napoleonic
March 24, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Just gave a friend a lift to the mansion, he having a proper look around (2 weeks). Come say hi!
#ipswich #museum
February 10, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Throughout Decant, I've made a lot of custom crates for objects. All the materials used to make them have been recycled from the old displays! ♻️♻️♻️
#museum
February 7, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Before and after reattaching a hummingbird head.
22nd August 2023
#museum #taxidermy
February 4, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Taxidermy heads are safely stored after freezing.
26th July 2024
#museum #taxidermy
February 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Cleaning the Royal George (swabbing the deck) while Kelvin Thatcher fixes the rigging. I also found a note inside showing where it's moved to over the years. #museums #ships
January 29, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Headless chicken? How about half a chicken! I had to remove the damaged case and this gave me a chance to give it a clean before I reconstructed it. #museum #anatomy #Naturalhistory
January 28, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Today's job? Moving an entire cabinet of lead type to another building, youch! 🥲 #printing #museum
January 20, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Crab complete! Packed up and ready to be displayed. It's hard to show how big this crab is without someone next to it. #museum #conservation
January 20, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Missing toes? No problem, I cast the missing parts out of plaster from a loose toe and painted it to match. Fun fact a crab toe is called a Dactyl. 🦀💅 #museum #Ipswich #redkingcrab
January 19, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I've painted the board on which this specimen is mounted a dark green/blue to contrast the reds in the crab to make them pop out! I then spent hours tying each leg down with a fishing line. It's very nearly finished. 🦀🦀🦀 #ifthecrabwasalivethiswouldbeverydifficult #Ipswich #museum
January 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It smelt so bad, but now I've got the remaining guts out from the legs I might survive tying it down. 🦀👍 #crabtastic #pincerperfect
January 10, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reconstructing a crab in the lab 🦀 #museum #crustationcare #1920s-crabfans
January 10, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Heres the ostrich toe replica i made before Christmas for our skeleton. It's made out of clay and I shaped it by hand. 😎
#museum #skeleton
January 6, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Taking the museum cat for a walk 🐈
December 10, 2024 at 7:53 PM
New protect started, an Ostrich with a broken wing. There's alot of warter damage to the base and the old copper wire has corroded so some will need replacing.
#ipswich #museum
December 10, 2024 at 4:32 PM
Today I finished creating a replica of Justice for our Ipswich market cross replica. Standing at only 10cm tall I spent a lot of time carving the clay back to get the core details into the statue. Cleaning to the original object still needs to be finished so more photos soon
#museum #Ipswich
December 4, 2024 at 6:38 PM
It's amazing how just cleaning the eyes of taxidermy can bring so much life back into the specimen.
In the last picture you can see how dirty this one was, the smoke sponges are grim!
#Taxidermy #museums
November 28, 2024 at 12:35 PM
My Illustration of damage on the ichthyosaur in Ipswich Museum before it was boarded up for building works. It has some Pyrite decay and cracks.
Bonus photos of my attempt to draw an Ictheosaur over the fossil.
#Museum #ichthyosaur
November 23, 2024 at 4:23 PM
After reattaching all the limbs I could find, these stick bugs are ready for display.
#Entomology #museum
November 21, 2024 at 9:02 PM