Mary Wichenbach’s moose turd art is flowing faster than… well, faster then moose poop. The headline for Deidre Fleming’s article in the Kennebec Journal grabbed my attention: Moose turd artist pooped.
Winchenbach lives in Somerville and her moose turd business has taken off since a video of her at the Common Ground Fair went viral, viewed by more than 3.3 million people, and resulting in more than 2000 orders for the moose turd art from her business, Tirdy Works.
According to Fleming, moose turd art is also sold in Alaska, although I don’t remember seeing any during my three visits to Alaska. I did see lots of moose.
Winchenbach began making moose turd items in 2005. “I had way too much time on my hands and one day when I was in the woods, I found a pile of turds and jokingly thought, ‘How funny would it be to put eyeballs on it and call it a head?’ So I did.”
They dehydrate the turds and shellac each twice with polyurethane, so the turds are safe to handle and clean enough to hang on your wall or even your earlobes. They collect moose turd on their own property and from a nearby bog.
The most popular moose turd product is their poo-poo clock which has turds placed between the numbers to indicate one-turdy, two-turdy, etc. They’ve just created a new character, Forrest Gump, which they are calling Forrest Dump.
I have to thank my friend Deidre for alerting us to this poopy business!