Bone-a-fied Masterpieces

“My dad raised me and my brothers as hunters and outdoor adventurers and searching for deer and elk antlers—called shed hunting­­—was always one of our favorite hobbies from February through April. To this day, shed hunting is our favorite thing to do together,” says Peterson.

Back in 1999, while he was studying dental technology at the Institute of Medical and Dental Technology in Provo, UT, Peterson had the idea to practice his air-powered hand drill skills on some of his antlers, rather than his training models, and a new hobby was born. “My teachers laughed and rolled their eyes at me but let me forge ahead since my waxing and ceramic work was top of the class,” he says.

After graduating and working as a ceramist, he opened his own lab, Red Hollow, in 2006 and fine-tuned his skill set even further, expanding into milling zirconia and screw-retained implants. As his abilities as a technician increased, so did...