Gray Wolf Skin Headdress

Miakoda means "Power of the Moon."
He's the first wolf I've ever worked with, and though he's not massive, he is certainly beautiful to behold!

Miakoda was stuck by a car up in Canada and sold to furrier in the USA which later went out of business. I got him at an auction in pretty rough shape: Several holes in his right flank and just behind one ear, as well as scrapes on his left side from where he fell onto the pavement after the impact had to be sewn up. Because he fell on his left side after being struck, his nose was pretty badly smooshed. Likewise, his ears were pretty mangled, so I had to rehydrate, treat, and re-shape the whole face over a hand-molded form in order to achieve the more lifelike appearance it has today. The process requires skill and patience.

Unfortunately, I was not able to fix all of the wolf's flaws. There are a few tiny bald spots on his ears and face, as well as some slightly weaker guard hairs under his left forearm, but these are hardly noticeable unless you know what to look for.

Regardless of this, Miakoda has the silkiest, softed fur you could imagine. The guard hairs on his back are about 4" long, and the underfur is thick and warm to the touch.

He is mostly light gray-brown with white sides and a black line running down the center of his back. There is also a lovely black V just behind his shoulders. His face is accented by tawny red and dark gray markings whith lighter gray highlights around his eyes (I'll post a photo of him all stretched out later on).


The whole skin is backed by a single piece of midnight black felt, from the base of the tail to the tip of the nose. The felt protects the skin from damage and hides the scrape marks and stitched-up areas from view.

Only the eye-holes are left uncovered so that you can tie the wolf's face over your own like a mask. There are two strips of recycled black leather on either side of the face so you can tie it behind your head or under your chin.

From the tip of the nose to the tip of his tail, this wolf is about 64" long, and about 22" in width at the widest point. Face is 6.5" in width across the eyes.

Shortly after this headdress was completed, I dreamed that I was crying as I wore this, and the tears began to flow down the wolf's nose. When they started to fall to the ground, they turned to little moonstone-like gems and sunk into the earth. Silver trees sprouted up and grew up around my legs, holding me to the earth. I woke up then because I could not move.

This is the second time I've had a dream about one of my skin headdresses. The other was a dream about my red-orange coywolf, which I have not yet posted a photo of. This second dream occurred while I was still toying with the idea of making headdresses, and in the dream I was walking through the halls of my old high school as if saying farewell. I was wearing a coyote skin, except that the skin was red. I had no idea at the time that red coyotes even existed, so imagine my surprise when I found one a week later that looked JUST like the one from the dream.

I'm now working on an African lioness skin headdress for myself, which I indend to wear to Burning Man in the summer. She died a natural death at a zoo in California back in the 1950s. I bought her from the wife of the former zookeeper, who skinned her himself. The woman said the lioness's name was Benji, so that's what I'll call her. I'll be sure to post photos as I go along.

Interested in purchasing this headdress for yourself? You can do so here: [link]

HEADDRESS BY: NaturePunk
MODEL: NaturePunk
PHOTOGRAPHER: [link]
LOCATION: Off the beaten path, somewhere near PDX