"You might be a redneck if...you owe the taxidermist more than your annual income"

-Jeff Foxworthy

I think caribou, elk, and deer are so beautiful. I am obsessed with antlers! Some people think i am so weird. I'm aware that some people think that hunting is cruel and that it's wasteful. I just wanted to note my feelings towards it whether they are right or wrong. I live more in the country surrounded by farms where a huge majority of people around me hunt. The outdoor section of walmart is always busy and almost every friends' house i've been in have had at least one deer head mounted on the wall. I love it and wouldn't have it any other way. My house doesn't but i'd like to have one when i get my own house one day.
Any stuffed animal, or skins are not uncommon around here as proud displays/ decorations. People like this don't think it's right to torture animals or anything like that, like animal organizations would like you to think. They admire the beauty of the animal and respect them. Hunting helps control the population of deer which has gotten to be insane around my area. I always see dead deer on the side of the road that people have hit. Almost everyday i see them eating in the fields, running around, or just starring when they get caught in headlights. Last year I was driving home and one came up the hill and hit me. It crashed into my windshield then went over my car. Some people are against hunting but don't think twice about a deer when they hit it with their car. Hunters will usually mount the head, tan the hide, and eat the meat so nothing is really wasted. I think it's neat how we use everything like hunters did hundreds of years ago.

So, here's the beauty of nature right in your own home. Some people like them and some people don't. I'd like to make some kind of jewelry related to this subject. Nature or our relationship with it? I'm just throwing ideas out there. It's kind of ironic that one would love an animal so much that they would kill, stuff, and mount it on a wall. Where did the whole wall mounting trend start? It's all ironic but i understand it. I think it would be neat to take parts of the hide and incorporate into jewelry. It would just be another way of displaying the hunt. I know in other cultures animal skins were worn not just for function but to show off their status. Back in history a man who wore a lion hide probably wasn't someone to mess with. I don't have a particular project these ideas are for but maybe when i have some spare time? (haha yeah right) This is just where my lastest inspirations were leading me.


Here's another Jeff Foxworthy joke:
"You might be a redneck if, you've ever hit a deer with your car.....on purpose!"