I did bend it around the curves. The vinyl I used is the same one we use on full vehicle wraps. It will bend an unbelievable amount with a little heat. I had tried an adhesive backed canvass material we use first but it didn't like the curves. I would work fine on a straight stave or a board though. I did apply a finish, multiple coats of tru-oil. This was the first time I tried it, but I had it on pretty good hunch that most of the imitation snake skin backings available are made this way. I'd like to take credit for the idea, but truth be told I just figured out the secret to someone else's good idea. The only hard part is finding high resolution images of long straight snake skin patterns. The one I used for that bow is actually a pretty low resolution. A real close inspection would probably reveal that it wasn't a real skin, but it was good enough that it wasn't obvious at first glance.
