When it comes to style and presentation, these new products from Wayland Dobbs Jr. have reached a new benchmark for strength and durability. Kathy and I met Wayland when we visited his booth at the 2023 Texas Taxidermy Association convention and competition this June in Killeen, Texas. I thought, wow these are different, intriguing, and heavy duty. To our delight Wayland is a new advertiser in this issue of  Breakthrough, and you can see his ad on page 47 of this issue. Wayland designs and builds custom metal work for homes, businesses, and does custom metal art. Visit https://waylandthesmith.com as well as his Facebook page.

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Contemporary: Rod Connelly–Pennsylvania

Contemporary: Rodney Schreurs–Wisconsin

Historial: Will Richard–California

Historial: Jane Catherine Tost–Australia

The induction ceremony will be held July 22, 2023, at the National Taxidermists Association convention in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (See http://taxidermyhalloffame.org.)

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During my first contact with AJ Harrington I asked, “why did you enter a rabbit?” and he said without hesitation, “I was going after the difficulty points, and if you do it justice, that’s one of the factors needed to win a major award.” Another factor he wanted to present was originality by custom sculpting his form and all parts of the anatomy—including the eyes. He documented the custom procedures with over 100 photos for a judge to see.

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The 2023 UTA Expo took place at the Drury Hotel and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas, April 18–23. After being absent from the competition world for five years, the mounts that were entered were of exceptional quality. The judges were Jack Emery, Kerby Ross, Todd Kranau,  and Randy Holler. To join the United Taxidermist Association visit https://unitedtaxidermyassociation.com or contact Tim Stidham (chairman) at stuffit@timstaxidermy.com.

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In 2017, an excellent client harvested a rare black rhino in Namibia. It was one of five killed in the world that year because only 5 tags are sold each year. The client asked me in 2019 if I would mount his black rhino shoulder mount, and of course, I jumped at the chance and so began the struggle. While waiting for the rhino hide and horns to arrive at the shop from being tanned at Wildlife Gallery, I started my search looking for a form, and I discovered that no one makes black rhino shoulder forms. So, the wheels started turning, and my creative side went to work.

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