I'm Victoria Marie, the owner and licensed taxidermist behind Tamwood Taxidermy.

So, where did Tamwood come from?

The “Tam” comes from my mom, Tammy. When I was trying to come up with a name for the business, I thought, well, where do animals come from? The woods, obviously. So I put the two together: Tam + wood = Tamwood.

I got into taxidermy through my interest in pelts and mounts. I'd scour estate sales & ren fairs for my own piece of this world. I wanted to learn how it all worked, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to try it myself. Before long, I knew this was something I wanted to take seriously and build a business around.

I trained under Brian McLaughlin at the East Coast Institute of Taxidermy here in Pennsylvania. Brian has been doing taxidermy since 1989, so there was a lot I could learn from him. The training was hands-on, and that's where I really started getting into the anatomy, technique, and all the little things that make an animal look like itself instead of just looking like a mount.

I'm a hunter and outdoorswoman myself, so I understand that the animals people bring through my door can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes it's a first buck. Sometimes it's a hard-earned trophy. Sometimes it's an animal from a hunt you'll be talking about for years. And sometimes, it's just a damn cool animal that you want to keep.

That's one of the things I enjoy about taxidermy. Every animal gives me something different to figure out. I like paying attention to what makes that particular animal look like itself and bringing that into the finished piece.

Tamwood is something I built from the ground up, and I'm proud to put my name behind it. It's my business, my work, and a name that means more to me than it probably looks like on paper.

— Victoria Marie