Tough stuff

Danville woman learns taxidermy trade

By Jeannie Stone

LITTLE ROCK — Debbie Woodard of Danville loved hunting, but she didn't like the price of paying a taxidermist to perserve her trophies. So she learned how to do it herself.

She was working full time as a cook in the Pottsville schools when she started learning taxidermy on the side as a way to defray costs for mounting the deer she and her husband collected during their hunting forays.

Woodard wasn't always into the hunting scene. Raised in Dover, she has memories of her stepfather hunting deer and turkey.

"He done it all," she said, but he didn't take her. She didn't go on her first hunt until she met her husband Ronnie. Together they hunt deer, turkey and squirrel, but it's the deer that were her guinea pigs starting out, and she continues to count them as her favorite forms to work with.

"A couple of guys brought me stuff to practice on at first. Then they started to come by all the time," Woodard said with a laugh. "I don't have time to sit down and just rest now. Whenever I stop I'm thinking about all the things I need to get done." she said. Woodard also admits to being a perfectionist.

Woodard jumped into her new endeavor and quickly outgrew the basement which was her first workshop. She and her husband built an 800-square-foot specially designed workshop for her business, and it is located outside their sprawling log cabinon the edge of the Ouachita National Forest.

She also joined the Arkansas Taxidermy Association and started attending classes held during the conventions. She learned techniques from some of the industry's finest taxidermists, including one in Vilonia, and people starting paying her compliments.

The petite Woodard isn't afraid of asking for help. It's simply a part of her drive toward perfection.

During deer season, Woodard develops an assembly line. "With so many coming in, I'll take three or four out of the freezer and flesh them at thesame time."

After the hide is properly treated, Woodard glues the hide to the form and slides the cape over. It is then time for the tedious work of adding dimension to the mount.

"The guys seem to like the muscle detail work," she said. Woodard spaces brads so there are literally hundreds of nails defining the muscles. She even adds dimension around the base of the ears.

"It just makes it more realistic. I add muscle detail in the face, too. I mean, I might as well do the whole thing," she said.

The mount must dry for two weeks before Woodard can complete the trophy with the clay and paint work.

Woodard has completed three shoulder mounts, two European mounts (only the skulls), a bobcat, a bear and an elk.

"The elk was so big my husband had to help me by holding the rack up, so I could screw it down. I had to use a big rock on the frame to keep the whole thing from flipping," she said.

An early riser, she starts in at the shop by 6:30 a.m. and doesn't return to the house till her husband comes home. "I like a good turnaround time, so there may be a time coming when I have to turn jobs down. When I put out a deer head, I'm putting out my reputation, and I want people to come back to me."

Her quest for perfection hasearned her a reputation among hunters in the River Valley. "They're proud of their mounts, and that makes me proud, because I want it to look like the day they shot it," she said.

Woodard is interested in learning to mount duck and fish and recently caught her first catfish. "Around here, when hunting stops fishing starts," she said with a happy sigh.

Duck mounting is not a venture to enter into lightly. "Ducks are the only animal which requires me to have a special permit and pay a fee," she said. "They are federally monitored. You have to keep records and have them tagged. If a hunter has extra ducks he can't just give them to me, he would have to sign them over."

She doesn't like to eat the duck or fish or the deer. "Chicken and turkey are about the only meats I eat," Woodard said. After all, husband Ronnie is the plant manager for Petit Jean Poultry.

When she is not involved inher taxidermy business she is working with wood. Woodard fashioned a cross to mark the spot where a friend's daughter died while riding a fourwheeler.

In addition to building the plaques for her mounts, she builds furniture with the same attention to detail. She favors cedar, although she also uses oak, cherry and walnut, and creates chests and gun cabinets and even made the sign to her shop.

Woodard has another hobby now - as of July 25 she is a grandmother. Grandson Caden Woodard is the joy of her life, she said. The Woodards have four grown children: Tasha Harris, Ashley Titsworth, Nathan Woodard and Jason Woodard.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 74, 75 on 09/25/2008