First attempt. I have the willows in a frame drying but am short on info about lacing the thing to the willows. What kind of lacing works best as far as how wide and thick the leather lacing material might be. And should the lacing be fairly flexible, like maybe deer or calf hide? About how far apart should the holes be in the pelt? Any pointers would be helpful.

I doesnt matter when making a decoration.-Use whatever looks good.
If you want it to look like a traditionally hooped beaver make an oval hoop out of two saplings and use butcher cord or similar and lace it thru holes with a sacking needle about an inch to an inch and a half apart around the hide.
Dont pull the tanned hide too tight or it can rip out due to expansion and contraction with changes in humidity.Just snug and the tanned hide will have some "give".

Buy some leather lacing used for relacing baseball gloves...

This is what my wife did on her first attempt a couple of weeks ago. She started it like I start nailing raw beavers on plywood: four tied points to kind of situate the pelt inside the hoop.

Looks good

I use babish or rawhide lacing soak it for a couple days use it lace it when it dries, it draws tight. when you lace it just draw it firm, if you pull it real tight it will dry and pull through the hide.

Do most of you leave the bark on?

Personally I might have taken the bark off, but the time of year I cut that vine maple I would have had to hire a beaver to get the bark off. I'm thinking that a coat or two of lacquer to brighten up the green of that vine maple might have been a good thing to do after it dried.

This one was hooped on a piece of oak that was steamed and bent. It is the only one I ever saw done this way. I bought it at a fund raiser auction for the NDFTA.

I have done this with most of my beaver. Tanned with the orange bottle stuff dries then hooped......jk

Looks good. I've never seen one with a tail and it looks very small relative to the pelt. Does the tail shrink that much in the tan process?