>>2625322>checking the drying progress.You want it to feel like paper.
If its feels like deli meat, keep drying.
You can dry too much to the point it cracks or tears when handling during the next stage but it isn't going to kick off while you're at work so don't stress. It takes many days to mummify itself.
If that does happen, just pour water on it and let it soak in before pulling it from the board.
I know that seems counter intuitive to dry it then wet it but we're going to soak it in the next stage- drying was just to stabilize it. Some commercial tans skip the drying stage completely.
Once the skin is dry you have a few options.
If you're not ready to move on you can roll it up loosely and seal in a zip lock bag and store in the freezer. (Don't let it get crushed or anything piled ontop of it).
If you just want to tack it to a board for a wallhanger:
Once you've decided on a mounting board, seal it with shellac or polyurethane or whatever you favorite furniture sealer is. I prefer a matte finish aerosol polyurethane.
Once the board is dry mount the skin to it and spray the entire plaque, skin and all, with the polyurethane.
It's now basically encapsulated in plastic and will last for decades.
You can also do some crafts, like a hat band, or anything else that won't flex or have hand contact with this method.
I would still suggest proceeding with the tan for a hat band but if it's ornamental and rarely worn it would be fine.
Something that flexes like a belt or wallet definitely needs to continue on to the next phase.
Every hide is different but you probably will see scales delaminating. This is normal and is more than likely due to where the snake was in its own shedding cycle. My timbers tend to lose the pink tones but the background white becomes brighter and "cleaner" looking.
If you choose to make a wall hanger you can generally work the hide without loosing too many scales to be noticeable.
In the next phase we'll flake them all off anyways.