Video produced and shot by Domenico Nicosia
Looking for an octopus in a jar? How about a Venus fly trap or a bat skull? Or maybe just a nice pair of genuine butterfly wing earrings for your significant other?
Taxidermy and natural history shop Curious Nature opened on Roosevelt Row last month. While the shop caters specifically to collectors of items such as those mentioned above, it’s also hoping to be an educational hub for the naturally curious.
Curious Nature owner Mason Conway, who’s been a veterinary technician for the past 10 years, said he has been interested in science and the natural world since he was a kid. Those interests met up with his love for history when he began to learn about the Victorian era, the time when it became popular for Brits to collect odd items like skulls, bones and taxidermy.
Conway first tried to open an online shop several years ago, but found that the format wasn’t suited to the products he wanted to sell.
“It really is the kind of thing you don’t shop for online,” Conway said. “This is really about the experience of coming in and getting to see all these amazing things together. It’s things that you definitely need to be able to pick up and touch and feel and see to experience it properly.”
Conway’s partner David Bjorn had been using Curious Nature’s current space as a pop-up location for friends’ projects and art exhibits for a while, but encouraged Conway to pursue his idea and open up the shop.
“It was really through really encouraging me, he was like ‘You can do it, you should do this,’ to jump and do it, so I did,” Conway said.
Although people are used to it being a temporary space, Conway said Curious Nature is there permanently, especially considering its success so far.
One challenge they’ve faced has been the ever-changing business climate. Because customers don’t return for the exact same item, Conway is constantly adding new products to keep his offerings fresh and maintain a variety and level of quality in the shop.
“With my background in veterinary medicine, I’ve spent the last 10 years working to save the lives of animals, so the things that I have here, nothing is killed for the store,” Conway said. “All the taxidermy is vintage pieces, even like the corals and things that I have are not harvested from the ocean, I’ve gotten those from local aquaculturists, they were things that died naturally.”
Conway, who’s spent the last three years teaching at local colleges, said he’d like to offer classes at the shop in the future. One woman offered to do a taxidermy workshop, and he’d also like to offer terrarium and insect mounting classes, both of which would be great for children as well as adults.
“I love it when kids come in with their parents because they’re so excited, and I want them and encourage them to pick everything up and to look at it and to feel it,” Conway said. “I love teaching the kids about this stuff because it’s interesting and exciting to me and I like to pass that on.”
Curious Nature employee Tabatha Christian said the shop is a great addition to the neighborhood and Conway is a good fit for the community.
“He’s just a wonderful, generous person,” she said. “His interests, they thrive in this store. It feels like an educational environment as well as just being really beautiful. … It kind of feels like a magical environment, you know? It transports you to places. … Even though there’s taxidermy and obviously these animals all around the room, there’s a great element of life here.”
Christian said her own love for nature also developed when she was a kid. She used to explore the Phoenix desert and scavenge for items like skulls, which she described as unique and beautiful.
“I really had a reverence for the life of the desert species and it really just started there, I really just started collecting little things on my own and that grew into greater interests,” Christian said.
Conway said items such as the butterfly wing earrings were very popular around Valentine’s Day as unique gifts. Many of the shop’s products toe the line between fascinating and downright strange; Conway said he’s seen a few customers come in, remark on the weirdness of the shop and then end up purchasing something, rather than just leaving.
“It’s definitely the kind of thing that I really encourage people to walk around and check everything out and ask questions if you have them because I’m more than happy to teach people and answer questions,” Conway said.
As the shop gets settled in on Roosevelt Row, Conway plans to introduce a few new products every month. Shipments come in often, with most products debuting on First Friday. Some are held until the next day, First Saturday; Conway said this is when most of the collectors and other serious buyers come to the shop.
Leslie Dean works a couple doors down from Curious Nature at Tammie Coe Cakes. She said the shop is interesting and well-suited to being on Roosevelt Row.
“It fits in with the hip downtown atmosphere and vibe,” Dean said.
Curious Nature is located on Roosevelt Street just off Fifth Street and is open 12-7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Prices range from about $15 for small gifts all the way to $500 for large taxidermy mounts.
Contact the reporter at kimberly.koerth@asu.edu
