By Alice Bell
Photos courtesy of Stephanie Brown

"He told me they were the main props of the movie - BOY talk about adding pressure - and would be used with a hunter and a taxidermist/collector. That is why he needed two and that they needed to look the same. When they left me they were ready for their close up." she added with a laugh.

She ended up making only the two birds for this movie - there was no room for error or time to create any spares, taking special care that they be as close to identical as possible.

"I did let him know that there is no way that something artist-made can be identical but that I would try to get them as close as possible." she said.

Her close is pretty close. Stephanie comes from a family of taxidermy artists and recently had a new category instituted by IGMA to cover her work.

"I just fell into making miniature taxidermy mounts. I have always thought of taxidermy as an art form and making miniature taxidermy mounts is even more of an art form because there is no such thing as a miniature rainbow trout or steelhead.

"Birds and fish are my favorites because they are beautiful animals to start with and just like large taxidermy mounts, birds and fish are the hardest. Every detail of a bird mount or fish mount must be reproduced by the artist because it is lost in the taxidermy process. Feathers and scales must be reproduced from scratch," she explained.

Miniature taxidermy clearly is even more exacting as the full scale art.      Continue the Article