Taxidermist known for ‘stripper mice’ becomes ‘national villain’ after TV show but craft turned into career she ‘loves’

A taxidermist known for her pole-dancing and drug-taking mice said she became a “national villain” after a live TV appearance but her craft has given her the career she “loves”.

Katie Hardwick, 41, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, first explored taxidermy in 2017 while on maternity leave with her first child, Vera, now aged eight, after her husband, 43-year-old James, bought her a mouse kit for beginners.

Once an avid gymnast then a professional dancer, Katie’s taxidermy involving mice on stripper poles became her “signature piece” as she felt her previous experience of pointed toes and extensions gave her the inspiration to “capture the movements”.

Katie purchases her mice at her local pet shop where they are sold already dead and frozen, but over the years she has dabbled in rabbits, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs and a bearded dragon – as well as squirrels and a fox which she found as roadkill.

The mother-of-two, who also has a four-year-old son named Cooper, has also explored more “whimsical” creations, such as gerbils doing lines of cocaine, rats taking hits from a bong and mice having sex on a miniature bed.

Thanks to the popularity of her “gimmicky” creations, Katie has been able to work full-time as a taxidermist from her studio at home by selling her pieces online, first on Etsy and then on her own website, where she earns anywhere between £5,000 to £10,000 each month and has at least four orders a day, even on a “quiet” week.

Although her loved ones view her craft as “completely normal”, Katie said she was made to be a “national villain for a day” when she appeared on ITV’s This Morning in 2022 to showcase her work – much to the “horror” of many watching along.

“I’ve never gone looking for what people are saying and worrying about it, so I was totally unaware people were sending in Twitter posts saying their skin was crawling and that I was a monster,” Katie told PA Real Life.

“I did just laugh because you can see how a story can become so flipped to make you look like something you’re not – I was a national villain for the day.

“For those few people that said those nasty things, I went on to get 100 orders with people saying they saw me on TV or read the paper.

“Being able to support my family and have a career I love, I just can’t believe it.”

After falling in love with the craft in 2017, Katie launched her store on Etsy in 2018, and later her own website named ohstuffinell, where she sells her wares and takes custom orders.

“Reflecting on it now, I wonder if I wanted to have a go because it would make me a bit weirder and because everyone else wasn’t doing it,” she said.

An avid gymnast in her childhood and a former professional dancer later in life, Katie often feels she uses her past experience for inspiration when designing the animals’ poses in her work.

“I became so well-known because of the pole-dancing mice and that is my signature piece,” she said.

“I didn’t work as a pole dancer myself but I trained and worked as a professional dancer for eight years.

“Capturing the movement with the pointed toes and extensions, things like that, all comes from my experience with dance.”

Katie said she mainly works with mice because they are “easy” to purchase from her local pet shop.

“They’re sold already dead and frozen as they’re supposed to be reptile food,” she explained.

“I have a fox in my workshop freezer which was roadkill that I came across but I haven’t had time just yet to make it worth its while – I want to do it justice,” she said.

While Katie creates more wholesome pieces, such as mice in yoga poses and sleeping on shelves, her “party animal” collection has soared in popularity.

“I find people like the shock and the comedy value… I moved on from the pole-dancing mice to the drug-taking mice and the weed-smoking mice, they’re just so popular,” she said.

“Taxidermy is being modernised in a way, it’s now not just the animals being mounted in stately homes, it’s a bit more gimmicky, a bit more whimsical.”

One of Katie’s creations, showing two mice exhibiting the classic lift from Dirty Dancing, also bagged her the best in show award at WunderKammer 2023, a taxidermy showcase.

Katie’s passion has enabled her to focus full-time on taxidermy and she can make between £5,000 to £10,000 each month.

She will receive around four orders on an average, “quiet” week while Christmas is her busiest period, where up to 20 orders can be placed each day.

A singular mouse in a normal pose costs around £60, a pole-dancing mouse is priced at £90 and her more intricate creations can cost up to £175.

While Katie’s children think her taxidermy creations are “completely normal”, her husband “loves it” and her close friends reach out if their cat brings home a dead mouse, not everyone is understanding of her passion.

Katie has received negative comments on social media where some have expressed their “offence” at her work, while in 2022 many viewers of her appearance on ITV’s This Morning voiced their “horror” and “disgust” online.

Despite the criticism she has received, Katie said she is not aiming to change the opinions of others about her work.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m not going to try and change their view that what I do is good if they think it is bad,” she said.

“I’d rather be weird and happy than boring and angry.”