‘Possum Pam’ for Maruia

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 18

‘Possum Pam’ for Maruia

Pam Tyler may be the only South Islander commercially working opossum fur. In Central Otago, where she has been producing fur products for some years, she is known as Possum Pam. HILARY BOWER reports from Arrowtown.

Squashed opossums are gory hallmarks of New Zealand’s rural roads, but Pam Tyler eyes the debris in a different way from most of us. When “Possum Pam” collects a carcase from the road, she passes it on to local trappers so they can sell it to a tannery. Ms Tyler, an opossum skin furrier, is moving soon to Maruia, where she and her boyfriend, an opossum hunter, will turn 250 hectares of land into a deer farm.

Her “Possum Parlor,” a 1946 Dodge truck converted into a shop and workshop, will stay in Arrowtown, where it has become a tourist attraction.

Pam Tyler will keep supplying the shop, however, and is building up her winter stock of Fergies, an opossum version of the Duchess of York’s foxy ski headband.

She is also making up 90 flap hats for Korean actors who will arrive soon in Queenstown for the filming of a Walt Disney feature. With an ancient industrial overlocking machine she bought for $6OO 10 years ago, Ms Tyler has developed business in Davey Crockett “coonskin" hats, gloves, cushion covers, jackets, furry animals and even "frontier ski gear.” She started her career by “mucking about with the skins” brought in by Dave Mclnstry as

they ran a firewood business in Queenstown. In those days, the Dodge truck was an office for the woodyard. Ms Tyler had received it as a Christmas gift from Mr Mclnstry. It now has has shiny plum paintwork, rimu flooring and opossum-covered furnishings, and is pulled up each day to a council-licensed spot just off Arrowtown’s main street. The person who inspired Ms Tyler into the business, was an artistic friend from Christchurch. When he was not making fur-hat Christmas presents for his Queenstown friends, he spent his time setting barbed wire and fish hooks into perspex toilet seats. Acquiring his hat pattern and experimenting with other styles, Pam Tyler gained confidence and progressed to her own patterns for mittens and slippers, then jerkins and jackets as word of mouth brought her local orders. Ms Tyler sells mostly to tourists in Arrowtown, although the bush telegraph often brings her orders from farmers, bushmen and fishermen. Canadians, Americans and Japanese are her biggest customers. Though fur is very soft, the leather is strong and hard wearing. Recently she has sold large numbers of unsewn pelts to Japanese visitors. She thinks they take them home to make fashion clothing and bedspreads. All the skins are tanned to export quality. Although she admits to being unable to pass up an opossum on the road, she gets all her skins from Fur Dressers and Dyers tannery in Dunedin. Self-curing, she says, is timeconsuming and produces very

hard leather. It is also a dicy proposition for tourists to take out of the country. Pam Tyler uses about 100 skins a month. They are worth from around $9.35 for a “green” or average skin to $2B for a first grade pelt. There is a tanning fee of $5 for each skin.

“If I’m really going for it,” she says she can make a flap hat with deer-antler buttons in half an hour.

Cutting out the pieces from cardboard patterns with a blade knife (scissors tear the skins) is

the most time-consuming part of the operation. Each piece has to be matched for markings and fur direction. Rabbit and deerskin have also been among Ms Tyler’s materials. She is not keen on rabbit because its fine fur gets into her eyes and nose even with the use of perspex safety googles. Work on deerskin hats has snapped too many machine needles to gain favour. Pam Tyler wants to set up a small factory at Maruia, and expand her product range and market.

A friend has already taken opossum products to Germany. Ms Tyler says the abundance of local opossums is one advantage in the shift, and she could make inroads overseas with help from local trappers who could use some extra income.

Flap hats for Korean actors

Also rabbit and deerskin