Posted: 5/3/05
Young taxidermist excels with deer
 Katie Willard sews up a deer mount on April 27. The tread is 30-pound cotton fishing line. ìItís really strong,î Katie said. Paying attention to detail is very important in her work. Photo by David Heiller |
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Thereís something about that deer.
We sat in a room surrounded by deer of all sizes and shapes, yet my eye kept traveling to that one deer mount.
Itís a big buck, his neck bulged out, standing in snow, straining just a bit to reach some leaves in a tree.
Katie Willard mounted the deer in what is called a browser pose. It is on a pedestal covered with cotton batting that looks like snow. Katie shot the deer too. It is winning awards almost everywhere she takes it.
Itís quite amazing, considering that Katie is just 19 years old.
Katie talked about her skills on April 20 in the Willard Taxidermy showroom at 3898 Cork Hollow Drive in rural Brownsville.
The room is filled with many deer, as well as other stuffed animals like antelope, caribou, pheasant, crow, northern pike, walleye, rainbow trout, and a huge American bison that Katie shot. The eyes can barely take them all in.
Katie, Jim, and Vicki, Katieís mother, like to bring their customers into this room so they can pick out the pose they want for their mount.
Katie downplays her skills as a taxidermist. I asked her several times if it was a gift. No, she said at first, itís a job that takes careful attention to detail. She picked up those details from a master who happens to be her father.
Now Katie is following in those big footsteps. She started working with Jim full-time last fall, after spending the summer at a ranch in Montana. If anything lures Katie away, it will be that. She loves the west and horses, and with her taxidermy skill, she could easily find work there. She said she doesnít want to own her own taxidermy business. ìBut thatís right now,î she added. ìThings could change.î
Katie traveled with Jim to Montana last year where he judged a competition. She took down notes for him. You canít buy training like that. ìIíve kind of gotten more of a trained eye,î she said. ìI have the luxury of having a teacher here all the time.î
Taxidermy is just something Katie likes to do. She practices a lot by doing mounts for people. ìThis is what our lives are about is whitetails.î
Hunting is a big part of it too. Katie shot three of the deer in the room where we sat, and a bison too. She still gets excited to shoot a big deer, but she finds herself thinking about what kind of mount it will make. ìYou look at it more from a taxidermy point of view,î she said. Sometimes she sits in her deer stand and dreams about her next piece.
ìI love doing a piece for myself,î she said. ìYou get to choose the pose, how you want this, want that.î
So is it an art form? There was that dumb question again. Katie said that for taxidermy competitions, you have to do something to catch the eye.
ìSomething like that,î she said, glancing over her shoulder at her masterpiece, ìThey look at art flowing in the piece.î She pointed out the colors, how the leaves blend together. ìFlowing,î she repeated.
ìEverythingís been done,î she said. ìSo itís a real challenge to do something that has never been done before, that catches somebodyís eye.î
Thatís where the detail work comes in. The eyes and nose have to be painted just right. The Willards use an airbrush for this. Itís all about blending, Katie said. ìEyes on a deer are not black,î she said. Eyes are brown in the summer and get darker in the winter. The Willards put a lot of work into things like that. For example, they will study an 8x10 photo of a deerís nose to get it correct.
ìFinishing work can really make a break a mount,î she said.
We walked over to Katieís prize-winning deer. She said she looked for just the right branch to use, then sprayed it with a mixture of glue and water.
ìTaxidermy is an art, definitely,î she said. (Aha, she finally admitted it!) ìI just try to recreate what God already made.î
And look at the hair on the deerís neck, she said. It was fluffy, which goes with a cold scene of snow on the ground. ìThe fluffiness of the hair really drew attention at the competitions,î Katie said. The Willards sometimes call the mount ìThe Back-Brushed Deer.î
We passed through the showroom into the workroom where the mounting was done. Jim and Vicki were working there, along with Jeff Elich, a friend from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Vicki was recently laid off, and is learning taxidermy too.
Itís great to have Katie helping with the family business, Vicki said.
And having someone you can trust, Jim added
He is proud of her. He is seeing a different attitude in her, more focused. Katie has some natural ability when it comes to taxidermy, Jim said.
ìItís a natural eye,î Elich said.
There are not a lot of women doing taxidermy, Jim said. He thinks they should be great at blending colors because they are used to putting on make-up.
Willard Taxidermy moved to its present site in December, 2003. The Willards had a shop called Wild Images for 2-1/2 years prior to that about a mile to the west.
Jim Willard started the business in 1987 in Monticello, Minnesota. They moved to rural Brownsville in 2001.
The Willards do all their own tanning. They skin out the head, salt and tan the skin, then mount it on a form, dry it, and finish. It takes 14-15 hours to custom-mount a deer head. The Willards guarantee a six-month turn-around.
Competition pieces take much longer. Skinning out the deer is the least favorite part of taxidermy work for Katie. ìIt really doesnít bother me. I donít think about it,î she said.
A 2004 graduate of La Crescent High School, Katie isnít sure what sheíll be doing 20 years from now. Taxidermy is more than a job, she said. ìPlans always change.î And thereís that ranch waiting for her in Montana.
ëHer Babyí earns some awards
Katie Willard, 19, has been competing at taxidermy shows since she was 13 years old.
She has won several awards and some prize money with her latest deer mount, which her father, Jim, laughingly refers to as ìHer Baby.î
In February she won the Best of Show award out of 119 entries at the Minnesota Taxidermists Guild in Pequot Lakes. She won best in the professional category and best whitetail there too. The judge , who was from Rockport, New York, gave her a 97 score in the professional category. That is three points better than her father, Jim Willard, has ever achieved. She earned $650 in prize money at this event, including $500 for the First Honest Whitetail Award. This award is sponsored by Research Mannikins because Katie used one of their forms for the deer.
On April 23-24 she had similar success at the Iowa Taxidermists Association in Des Moines. She won best of category, best of show in the professional division, and received another First Honest Whitetail Award worth $500.
Katie also received a blue ribbon at the World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois,March 29-April 2. She scored 92 points out of 100.
But those awards donít seem to go to Katieís head. Different shows bring different results. ìTo be honest, itís just a matter of opinion,î she said. ìWhat comes first is your being happy with it.î
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