Creepy, crafty and curious

A local artist is taking taxidermy to another level.

Caeleigh Hiscock
Kicker

What others might see as creepy or strange, Krista Elliott sees as art.

The taxidermy artist’s work is whimsical, and a little creepy. She sells her creations through her business, Curious Collections.

Amidst cosplayers dressed as Ghostface, psychics reading palms, trick-or-treaters and a zombie flash mob, Krista Elliott set up her table at the Halloween Bizzare organized by Needful Things Bizarre Friday. Held at the Farmer’s Market, makers and sellers of curiosities, oddities and the bizarre got a chance to shine.

Festive mice, ducklings with glasses, turtle shells and specimens in jars were just some of the things that Elliott had for sale.

For Elliott, taxidermy started out as a hobby. Growing up in a fishing and hunting family, it was just something she has always been around.

“It was just a common thing in our family,” said Elliott.

However, a couple of years ago, her hobby turned into something more. When looking for something fun to do, the Mount Pearl resident started doing what she calls “whimsical taxidermy”. She adds her own spin on some of her specimens, giving them costumes and accessories – a Wednesday Adams mouse, a duckling with glasses, and mouse apparently decorating a Christmas tree.

“I thought it was just something different and there wasn’t much of it out around. So I thought I would give it a shot.” said Elliot.

From there, she tried selling her whimsical wares at a local market and its success led to the creation of her business, Curious Collections.

“It wasn’t something someone would want to have in their home.”

Gary Whittle

Focusing on smaller animals when doing taxidermy like squirrels, mice, ducklings and reptiles, Elliott says the smaller animals give her more creative freedom. She offers everything from memorial taxidermy to handmade jewelry, but she says the heart of her business are the custom orders.

“I have a lot of people message me for custom mice,” said Elliott. “They’ll message and they’ll want a custom mouse of their boss, or they’ll want custom celebrities, musicians and things like that.”

And while Elliott gets a lot of love and positive responses towards her business, the territory comes with a stigma of being disturbing, creepy or gross. Elliott says this doesn’t bother her and finds the reaction to her work amusing.

Elliott’s partner, Gary Whittle, says while he has never been around taxidermy before the start of her business, he doesn’t let the oddness of it get to him.

“The more creepy she makes them, the more I like them,” Whittle said during a phone interview from Nunavut where he is currently working.

Whittle has tried his hand at whimsical taxidermy, but it didn’t go well.

“It wasn’t something someone would want to have in their home,” he said.

Curious Collection’s sales are steady throughout the year, but with Halloween approaching it brings excitement for the eccentric taxidermist.

“Halloween is great because everyone gets to get together and lean more on the oddity side of things and the curiosity side of things,” said Elliott.

Before the year ends, Curious Collections is scheduled to attend multiple niche markets such as the Krampus Market held every Christmas season.

Whittle says Elliott’s commitment to the strange and wonderful always amazes him.

“I love to see all the passion she puts into all the work that she does,” said Whittle. “She’s always super excited about it. She’s really happy to make all the little mice and everything that she does.”