Teen is award-winning taxidermist
HOWIE PAUL HARTNETT
Staff Writer
Yes, she likes to skin and mount animals.
No, she isn't weird, crazy or cruel.
Yes, she's sure.
Amy Ritchie paints the eye of a white-tailed deer Thursday in the taxidermy shop her father built beside her bedroom.
Deer heads, squirrels and fox heads are one thing, but cat paw key chains are just too much for her mom, Lisa Ritchie.
"That kind of grosses me out," she said. "I support her, but I don't share her love for the craft."
Lisa Ritchie didn't share her daughter's desire to skin roadkill on her bedroom floor, either. Amy does that in her shop now.
She just shows her mom finished products and the ribbons she wins for them.
The state licensed taxidermist beat out more than 25 adult professional competitors to win the National Taxidermists Association's small mammal national champion award last month in Louisville, Ky., for her scene of a mouse hunting a beetle.
Her white Bengal/Siberian tiger cub mount took a second place, and her fox head earned a third-place ribbon. The tiger also earned a third-place spot among more than 40 professional entrants at the World Taxidermy Championships in April.
Some taxidermists work their whole careers and never earn such accolades, said Robert Holder, president of the N.C. Taxidermists Association.
"She's something else," said Holder, who owns Southern Trophy Taxidermy in Etowah. "The things that she works on is real minute stuff, and you've got to have patience to do it. She's really got a talent for it."
North Carolina has more than 800 taxidermists with licenses, which are necessary to sell mounts. Holder estimates there are at least another 800 people statewide who work without a license. N.C. licensing officials say they are getting more applications this year than last.
South Carolina has about 800 taxidermists, estimates Melissa Phillips, vice president of the S.C. Association of Taxidermists.
So how does a young girl from Midland -- about 20 miles east of Charlotte -- get into taxidermy? By driving around her house.
One afternoon in summer 2000, Amy and her family were out for a ride around their 5-acre property when they saw a snake freshly hit by a neighbor's car.
"I wanted to skin it because I thought the skin was so beautiful," Amy said. "My mom thought I was crazy."
But Lisa Ritchie let her eldest daughter do it. All four Ritchie children are home-schooled and encouraged to explore their creativity.
"We just kind of step back and give her the room," Lisa Ritchie said. "I figured this is one (activity) she would do for three or four months and get past."
Amy plays the piano and guitar by ear. She has a pet ball python named Scales and a tarantula named Rosie. The room she shares with sister Sara, 13, has posters of Christian boy band Plus One on one wall and several deer heads on the other.
For her first skin, the snake she made into a belt, she used the instructions listed in "American Boy's Handy Book."
For her first mammal, a rat from Scales' food supply, Amy read everything she could about taxidermy on the Internet. As she moved onto larger animals, such as squirrels and rabbits, she started reading books and attending seminars on taxidermy.
She shoots squirrels herself, when they are in season. The rest of her skins come from customers, taxidermy supply companies and other taxidermists.
Amy prefers to get prepared skins, but she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Fortunately, she has a cast-iron stomach and a seemingly indifferent nose.
"I don't even wear gloves," Amy said. "I tend to cut more holes in skins when I wear gloves. I can't feel it as well."
Amy's shop is in her bedroom behind her closet. Her dad, Ned, converted attic space into a 6-by-14-foot room.
The room is packed with taxidermy catalogs, books, animal forms and tools. Besides a bevy of scalpels, scissors and magnifying glasses, she has an airbrush painter and a fleshing machine -- a device with a saw blade that Amy can run the inside of a pelt over to remove excess flesh.
To pay for her hobby, Amy sells deer heads, rabbits, squirrels and other wares on eBay or through her Web site.
She says she has sold 36 squirrels for between $80 and $250.
Amy expects her workload to increase as she gets more experience and awards. The goal is to have a thriving business by the time she completes her secondary education.
It's not the career Lisa Ritchie imagined for her daughter -- she wanted Amy to be a surgeon. But as long as Amy is happy, Lisa Ritchie will deal with foul fumes in the house and finding odd things on the stove.
It's not that bad, Amy says.
"I don't boil rabbit heads anymore."