Honouring kills with taxidermy

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This article was published 08/11/2018 (2497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CARROLL — With deer hunting season in full swing, a local taxidermist is preparing for the busiest time of the year.

Sabrina Ariss, Dusty Oaks Taxidermy owner and operator, treats her craft with reverence, creating each art piece with loving care and a dedication to detail.

“These are prized possessions that you went out and hunted and gathered,” Ariss said. “You want to take pride in it.”

A hunter her entire life and an avid lover of animals, taxidermy seemed like a natural fit for Ariss.

“When you shoot a trophy you want to honour it and the best way to honour that trophy is to mount it,” Ariss said.

Arris entered the industry in 2014, working part time at first. She has a diploma in the art and has also taken wood working classes to perfect her craft, with the artist hand crafting most of the bases used to mount her animals.

Demand for her unique set of skills has grown, leading her to open Dusty Oaks Taxidermy full time on Nov. 4 of the last year.

“I just got to so busy that I had to open my own shop, which is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Ariss said.

She tries to avoid using plastic scenery, opting to instead use natural decor as much as possible, which she said adds authenticity to her work.

Living on an 25-acre farm surrounded by oak trees east of Souris, Ariss is able to forage for natural pieces that can enhance trophies.

She has a slough she scavenges for flora to go with ducks, trees she can place with beavers and so on.

Most projects take between nine months to a year to complete, with Ariss considering the best part being when an owner gets their prize back.

She considers it an honour to be a part of the final process of celebrating a kill, taking joy in people’s reactions when they pick up her finished works.

“I like watching people’s faces when they get their mount back, there’s always such joy,” Ariss said.

During deer hunting season she sees a lot of mounts come in, but she also enjoys seeing an eclectic range of other animals come in the front door throughout the year.

Her pieces range from birds, to deer and elk, beavers, racoons, Texas long horns, coyotes, moose, small bears and everything in between.

Most of Ariss’s clients are hunters looking to preserve prize trophies, but she has received requests to work on dead pets.

Whether she preserves dead pets is one of the most common inquiries Ariss fields, but she has decided to stick to wildlife, using each project as a way to celebrate the animal and hunter who bagged it.

However, not all animals she receives are hunting trophies. Ariss will on occasion see animals come into the shop that have been deemed road kill.

Owls are an especially common occurrence.

Any animals that come through her shop must have a tag or permit or she is unable to work on it.

For animals that are road kill instead of hunting trophies, a permit can usually be obtained from a conservation officer.

Ariss’s work also extends to working on skulls.

One of the more unique services Ariss offers is the hydro dipping of skulls. Hydro dipping creates a tie-dye esque paint job to a skull. Using multiple spray paint colours in water, Ariss can dip the skull to create a unique paint job.

“Every dip that you do is going to be different,” she said.

One of the more unusual misconceptions people have is that Ariss drives a taxi.

She has had people ask if she is a taxi driver when she wears her Dusty Oakss Taxidermy apparel. Her own sister-in-law originally thought she was going to be a taxi driver when Ariss made the move to become a professional taxidermist.

“I tell them no, I take dead animals and I stuff them, more or less,” Ariss added, which she said is usually met with either disgust or curiosity.

“Each to their own,” she added.

The launch of Dusty Oaks marks the first time Ariss has been her own boss, which is perfect for the young mother with two preschoolers.

Her tiny tykes are already following in her footsteps, with her son Hunter, four, and daughter Grace, two, already wanting to help out at the shop. She hopes to one day pass the business on to them.

»ckemp@brandonsun.com

»Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp