He cuts one mean rug

PALMER — Dan Williams makes one mean rug.

The taxidermist from Palmer recently won first place in the professional division of the brown bear rug competition at the World Taxidermy Show. The 8 1/2-foot bear scored 95 out of a possible 100 points, taking home a blue ribbon in the field of 500 entries.

Williams has been working with hides for almost 20 years. He has owned Wildlife Artistry here for the last six. He stays away from mounting fish, choosing to concentrate instead on big game. While his shop is constantly full of large African game — including a shoulder mount of a hippopotamus at the moment — he has attended the show in St. Louis for the past 10 to 15 years.

Besides the competition, the new methods and techniques on display at the show prove invaluable to his practice, he said. Taxidermy has changed so much in the past 20 years, and if people in his trade  don’t keep up with the new techniques, new work will look old, he said.

“Anyone can put a piece of tanned leather over a deer form,” Williams said, “but it’s the new methods of making the details that set you apart.”

He credits his success to two techniques, making casts of the original animal and air brushing details. On the bear that won first place, Williams made impressions of the jaw and nose on the fresh carcass. He then filled these molds with liquid plastic creating a true replica of the original bear. He also used an airbrush to paint color onto parts of the bear based on reference pictures.

“At the competition, the hair quality has nothing to do with it,” Williams said. “The judges use flashlights to look inside the back of the throat and inside the nasal passages.”

Williams said he took the brown bear rug because flying to the show with full mounts isa difficult. However, he did take a small spring buck antelope his wife shot in Namibia along for judging as well. That mount missed first place by just one point.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or (907) 352-2252.