Honoring Hunting Traditions

I grew up hunting, mostly with my dad and my grandpa.

Grandpa was always our driver. He’d show up before daylight in his old diesel truck, the engine rumbling so steady it could put me right back to sleep...whether I was a kid or a grown woman. That sound still feels like home.

He didn’t get out of the truck much. He didn’t need to. He drove us through the hills with a bag of apples from his tree on the seat and a pack of black licorice in the glove box. He taught me as much about the best hunting snacks as he did about the hunt itself, maybe more.

When we’d head off hiking, he’d stay behind, windows down, reading a book or watching birds. He noticed things. He moved slow, but he was steady.

I can still hear his voice when my sister dropped her first buck at twelve years old, one shot from 400 yards:

“My hell! She got it!”

On the way home, he’d sometimes floor it down the highway, “blowing the leaves out of the bed,” just to hear us kids squeal. Then he’d make us swear not to tell Grandma.

Those moments shaped me.

When he passed, I realized how fragile memories can be. How easily they fade when the people who lived them with us are gone.

True Plume Studio was born from that ache—the longing to hold onto something that mattered. Not just the trophy, but the moment. The laughter. The early mornings. The quiet pride. The stories told between miles.

I believe taxidermy can be more than preservation.

It can be remembrance.

It can be legacy.

Every piece I create is made with reverence: for the animal, for the land, and for the story it carries. My work is slow, intentional, and deeply personal, because the memories behind it deserve that kind of care.

This isn’t about freezing something in time.

It’s about keeping it close.

Because some stories don’t deserve to fade.

They deserve to be felt.

Our Story