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While white-tailed deer make up most of Jeff Gerdes’ projects, he’s put his taxidermy talents to use on a menagerie of mounts, big and small — from badgers to boars (right), bears to buffalo and more. Even with all the animals he’s had a hand in bringing back to life-like, he’s still got a few on his bucket list, including mountain lion and moose.

ALEX T. PASCHAL APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

ometimes a work of art out just jumps out at you — especially when it’s got 4 legs.

Take the pieces Jeff Gerdes creates. While some artists’ works are born of colors and canvas, Gerdes does his best work with fur and forms.

By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media

And his art gallery? He’s got lots of them — in living rooms and cabins and man caves throughout the Sauk Valley.

Gerdes owns Trail’s End Taxidermy in Amboy, where he turns hides into trophy pieces that hang out him homes, or stand up, if the case may be. Deer, raccoons, wolves, bears … if they were in his clients’ sites, they’ll end up in his workshop.

“It truly is an art,” he said. “Taxidermy is a form of art. If it doesn’t look like the animal should look, then you’re artwork is not very good. There’s a lot that goes into the finished work. You can change the expression of the animal with the eyes and ears. It all has to work together.”

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For Gerdes, seen here in his taxidermy workshop in the basement of his Amboy home, creating lifelike pieces is a labor of love. “I enjoy being able to see someone else’s trophy, especially when it’s a young person’s first deer that they’ve ever harvested and want it mounted to keep as a memory,” he said.

CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@ SHAWMEDIA.COM

This marriage of taxidermy and talent is something Gerdes has enjoyed for 28 years — and he’s managed to find spare time in his busy schedule to do it. When he’s not managing oil pipelines for Kinder Morgan in Rochelle, fighting fires for the Amboy Fire Department or heading up the committee behind the Amboy Depot Days’ popular 50/50 raffle, Gerdes is cleaning skins, sizing them up, and turning molds and mounts into lifelike works of art from the basement of his home.

There’s more to it than just the work that goes into it, though. There’s the story behind the stuffing. Whenever someone takes pride in bagging their first deer, or brings home something unusual from far away, Gerdes enjoys hearing the stories behind the experiences, and takes pride in playing a part in helping that memory live on through this work.

Perfecting the art of taxidermy takes time and talent, and Gerdes has invested a lot of both during his nearly 30 years in the profession.

he said. “... If it doesn’t look like the animal should look, then you’re artwork is not very good. There’s a lot that goes into the finished work.”

Top: A bison, hunted in Kansas with a crossbow, is one of Gerdes’ most recent projects. At left, a badger skull and, right, a bear skull are other works in progress.

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“I enjoy being able to see someone else’s trophy, especially when it’s a young person’s first deer that they’ve ever harvested and want it mounted to keep as a memory,” he said. “Even the smaller deer are still trophies. I get to see some nice, big deer and animals. I enjoy the variety of the animals.”

He’s strictly a fur man — no fins or feathers — and whitetailed deer make up most of Gerdes’ projects, but he’s also done bobcats, foxes, antelope, wild boars, coyotes and a buffalo taken down by bow and arrow in Kansas. He’s even had customers bring him animals from overseas hunting trips. One of his more recent customers returned from Africa with blesbok and springbok impalas.

Gerdes would like to go to Africa one day, he said — if he can find the time. On top of his taxidermy work, and everything else he’s got going on, he also attends taxidermy classes and workshops throughout the year, learning about new materials and methods and honing his craft as he goes along.

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A bison skull in Gerdes’ shop gets the “European Mount” treatment, in which the skull of the animal is preserved and whitened as the trophy piece.

“It never stops, it seems like,” Gerdes said. “You would think that once you’ve learned it, you’ve made it to that point and you’re done. As the process of the materials that we buy improves, that makes us have to improve with it.”

That trail that led to taxidermy began when Gerdes would go hunting with his grandfather in rural Sublette. They would take their catch to a taxidermist, where young Jeff became fascinated with the process. He picked up on a few basic concepts and picked up some jobs along the way. He began by doing a few white-tailed deer a year and learning through trial-and-error. Today, his taxidermy talents attract a growing number of clients, and it’s not unusual from him to do about 40 deer a year.

The skins come to Gerdes after the animal’s been processed and the hides cleaned by a tanner, keeping the unpleasant odor from filling the basement. Once they’re good to go, he affixes them to molds that mimic the muscular make-up of the animal — and it’s not a one-size-fits-all process. Making the molds takes precise measurements to prevent wrinkles and make the finished product as life-like as possible. The process involves studying animal anatomy and proper muscle placement, a process that’s improved over the years.

“You really have to know what’s underneath the skin to get it right,” Gerdes said. “It took a long time to learn and understand it. You should be able to look at a mount and determine what they are looking at, looking at you, looking to the left, looking to the right, that’s part of the artistry part of it. You just have to know what’s behind and underneath the skin to create that expression. Every animal is different.”

Gerdes attends the Illinois Taxidermy Association Convention each March, and brings over some of his works for contest judging, where winners can advance to world championships. Even with nearly 30 years under his belt, with each visit, Gerdes still manages to learn something new.

“It’s nice to talk with people who are doing the same line of work that you enjoy,” Gerdes said. “There are always tips and tricks, and someone’s always coming up with different ways. It’s fun to talk with these guys.”

There are fewer taxidermists now than there were a couple of decades ago, as many grow older and materials become more expensive, but Gerdes has managed to buck that trend, with business picking up through the years.

Gerdes is one of only two taxidermists working in the area, and rising costs make it a challenge to stay in the profession, but Gerdes still has loyal customers who bring in projects for him to work on.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

The bucks and does stop here, in Gerdes’ workshop, before heading back out the door into customers’ homes and businesses, where they’ll take a place of pride on the wall for years to come. “There’s always a story with every animal that comes into the shop. It’s interesting to hear them,” he said.

“Unfortunately, running a taxidermy is getting expensive,” he said. “The cost of the materials can add up, and it gets expensive, but I have customers that come and bring me deer every year.”

While most of his work ends up in people’s homes, you can see his handiwork at Starved Rock State Park Visitor Center in Utica, where a red fox and a coyote he worked on are displayed. About a decade ago, he almost got to work on a wolf for the park. It had been hit by a vehicle near the park and preserved by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in a freezer, but a power outage rendered the wolf unusable.

“I don’t know if I’ll get another opportunity to do that again,” Gerdes said, adding that a mountain lion and a moose also are on his “bucket list” of animals he hopes to work on one day.

Other works done by Gerdes have made it to local businesses, bars and restaurants.

A typical white-tailed deer can cost between $700 to $800 depending on the size and materials, but for hunters who are proud of their catch, it’s worth it.

“It’s a trophy and it’s a way to preserve it,” Gerdes said. “It’s something that can go on their wall, or in their cabin or wherever they choose as something that can be talked about for years down the road. There’s always a story with every animal that comes into the shop. It’s interesting to hear them, what they were doing and what the situation was when they shot their animal. Some of them may have been with their grandfather, some with their young son or daughter, or some that just got lucky in the right place and in the right time.”

Preserving those moments is something Gerdes enjoys having a hand in, always remem- bering to keep his passion from becoming just another project. It has to be something fun to do, he said, because if it’s not, then the workmanship will suffer. Through the years, he’s learned to manage his workload to prevent it from reaching a breaking point. Much of his skill is shared through word of mouth, and on the Trail’s End Taxidermy Facebook page.

With few taxidermy services available in northern Illinois, there’s no shortage of work for Gerdes.

“I’m comfortable with what I do here, and I’m going to leave it that way,” he said. “I enjoy doing it. As long as they keep bringing animals to me, I’ll keep doing it.” n hen most people think of roadside attractions, they think about those quaint little stops and shops by the side of road, a magnet that tugs at tourists and beckons them to pull over.

When Lea Buss thinks of a roadside attraction, it’s usually something someone is trying to get rid of.

Maybe it’s a rummage sale bargain or a forlorn piece of furniture someone’s tossed out, just about anything she sees as she and her partner, Steve Farver, are out and about — or as Lea likes to call them “curb alerts.”

A dresser that looks down in the dumps, a table that’s a bit wobbly and wonky, shelving that’s a little cattywampus? It’s time to sound the curb alert and hit the brakes for a Buss stop, so she can pull over and pick it up. Then its back to her shop, Lea B’s Creations in Ashton, where Buss fixes, fine-tunes and freshens up her finds to give new life to a piece someone else thought was past its prime. Then it’s on to the sales floor and eventually a new home.

“If I can take something that’s 60-70 years old and give it another 50-60 years for somebody, it’s better than having it go in a landfill,” Buss said. “I like taking pieces that look really bad and making them into something that looks really good.”

By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media

LEA B’S cont’d from page 31

Buss hauls her finds to her downtown Ashton store, located inside a building Farver had owned for his own businesses for many decades. Walking in from the corner front door, an array of newly retouched and refurbished tables, shelves, dresser drawers, cabinets and other pieces of home decor greet customers and await a new home.

When she isn’t working at her full-time job back home in Rochelle, Buss is working on her projects at the store, which she opens up for customers on Saturdays, or by chance and appointment. She also posts her finished works on the Lea B’s Creations Facebook page, and they don’t stay there for long. Most of her pieces are snapped up pretty quickly, she said.

Buss’ flair for design and passion for repurposing and recycling began as a young girl, when she would help her parents, Harley and Judy Lawson, fix up and resell pieces from flea markets and rummage sales. The fun of those treasure hunts stayed with Buss and her sisters, and about 7 years ago, she and her sister Kelly wandered around local rummage sales and found some items big enough to get her creative gears going.

With some time on her hands, and a garage where she could work on pieces, Buss set out to have some fun with her furniture fixer-uppers.

“I found a couple of pieces of furniture, and I was like, ‘You know what? It’s about time I got back into doing something that I like to do,’” Buss aid. “Me and my parents used to refinish furniture when I was a little girl growing up, and I enjoyed doing it. Both of my parents have passed away, my kids are grown, and I thought it was time to start getting back into doing something I like.”

Two pieces of furniture turned into five, then ten, and then enough to fill the garage. As her pieces began to sell, it spurred her on to do more. Then Mother Nature stepped in and slowed things down. Working in a cold garage just didn’t cut it, for her or for the supplies she used to restore her pieces. And neither Buss nor Farver wanted to have “a garage hobby that went kind of crazy,” she said, taking up space and collecting dust.

That’s when Farver came up with an idea.

“It started getting cold in the winter and Steve was like, ‘What are you going to do when it gets cold?’” Buss said. “You can’t work in the garage because there’s latex paint and they have to be in a warm temperature. I thought I would just close down until spring, but he told me that he had the whole front of the store open, and it was just sitting empty. It grew from there.”

After about a year of working from the garage, where she sold more than 3 dozen pieces, Buss moved in to Farver’s building. At first, only a few of pieces were on display, but that number continued to grow, with a mix of small and large pieces.