November Workbench

Eyes arrived today. I was completely out of yellow eyes. I got another Barrows goldeneye rounded out today. I'll dowel and glue the head this evening. I'm doing two of each, common goldeneyes, Barrows , and two buffleheads. I'll paint one of each and my daughter will paint the others. It'll be fun to see our style differences.
 

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Eyes arrived today. I was completely out of yellow eyes. I got another Barrows goldeneye rounded out today. I'll dowel and glue the head this evening. I'm doing two of each, common goldeneyes, Barrows , and two buffleheads. I'll paint one of each and my daughter will paint the others. It'll be fun to see our style differences.
I included a picture of my decoy shop. Tractors and 4 wheelers in the bays and heated shop (24×24) on the left. Lots of snow. Supposed to go below zero over the weekend. Carving time in North Pole AK.
 
Eyes arrived today. I was completely out of yellow eyes. I got another Barrows goldeneye rounded out today. I'll dowel and glue the head this evening. I'm doing two of each, common goldeneyes, Barrows , and two buffleheads. I'll paint one of each and my daughter will paint the others. It'll be fun to see our style differences.
Good morning, Ronald~

Gorgeous work - and good use of the cold months! I, too, am fortunate enough to have a heated shop for my boats and carving and home projects.

Question: Where do you get your eyes? My long-time sources have dried up in recent years. I still have a fair supply - but it's always the odd ones that are missing when you need them.

All the best,

SJS
 
Good morning, Ronald~

Gorgeous work - and good use of the cold months! I, too, am fortunate enough to have a heated shop for my boats and carving and home projects.

Question: Where do you get your eyes? My long-time sources have dried up in recent years. I still have a fair supply - but it's always the odd ones that are missing when you need them.

All the best,

SJS

Mr Sanford I order mine from Michael Braun
 
glass eye source.

I started buying cabochons from Amazon for my glass eyes years ago. I use 12 mm and 10 mm most of the time and paint my own using oil based enamel. I'm rarely satisfied with the range of eye color available and end up needing a custom color or a size that's not available. Where are you going to come up with a 25mm yellow eye for a giant goldeneye. I have sizes from 25mm to 6mm. I bought some eyes from a well known suppliers many years ago and they were exactly the same thing, just painted. I'll put the black pupil in with the butt end of a small brush, that way I can control the size of the pupil. On red eyes and yellow eyes I like to have a pinpoint pupil so that eye color shows better. I'm guessing that there are a lot of eye suppliers hoping you all don't figure this out. I pay around 10 cents a pair for eyes, but it's not the money savings that's important, after all I have to paint them. I like being able to make a faint white/slate grey eye for a white wing scoter instead of using a white eye that I use for a surf scoter. I like using a yellow/faint orange eye for a ringer instead of settling for a yellow eye. I'll go through at least100 pairs of eyes a year and instead of spending $400 I've spent $10. I suppose if you are competing you might want to use some tohicon eyes, but I don't do competitions. Having clear glass eyes makes for easy customization and you can have a lot of extra eyes available in multiple sizes without breaking the bank.

The goldeneye has 25mm eyes, the wigeons with it are oversized with 12mm eyes, all hand painted eyes.

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IMG_4361.JPGIMG_4362.JPG

If you can tell the eyes in this mallard hen are 10 cents a pair you are more discerning than I am.

335067728_1207630006808816_3491935229171334918_n.jpg

i can even get 3mm to make eyes for these miniature flyers with a 10 inch wingspan.
422372232_7604007859631746_4625760280624067197_n.jpg
 
glass eye source.

I started buying cabochons from Amazon for my glass eyes years ago. I use 12 mm and 10 mm most of the time and paint my own using oil based enamel. I'm rarely satisfied with the range of eye color available and end up needing a custom color or a size that's not available. Where are you going to come up with a 25mm yellow eye for a giant goldeneye. I have sizes from 25mm to 6mm. I bought some eyes from a well known suppliers many years ago and they were exactly the same thing, just painted. I'll put the black pupil in with the butt end of a small brush, that way I can control the size of the pupil. On red eyes and yellow eyes I like to have a pinpoint pupil so that eye color shows better. I'm guessing that there are a lot of eye suppliers hoping you all don't figure this out. I pay around 10 cents a pair for eyes, but it's not the money savings that's important, after all I have to paint them. I like being able to make a faint white/slate grey eye for a white wing scoter instead of using a white eye that I use for a surf scoter. I like using a yellow/faint orange eye for a ringer instead of settling for a yellow eye. I'll go through at least100 pairs of eyes a year and instead of spending $400 I've spent $10. I suppose if you are competing you might want to use some tohicon eyes, but I don't do competitions. Having clear glass eyes makes for easy customization and you can have a lot of extra eyes available in multiple sizes without breaking the bank.

The goldeneye has 25mm eyes, the wigeons with it are oversized with 12mm eyes, all hand painted eyes.

View attachment 60606

View attachment 60607View attachment 60608

If you can tell the eyes in this mallard hen are 10 cents a pair you are more discerning than I am.

View attachment 60609

i can even get 3mm to make eyes for these miniature flyers with a 10 inch wingspan.
View attachment 60610
I do my eyes the same way. But I use my eyes as my signature for my birds. Purple being my signature outdoor color, I make all my pupils purple for my eyes. Not sure it will stick, but 100 years from now if someone finds or owns one of my decoys, you'll know it’s mine. Not from my scribbly signature but from the purple pupils. These are some eyes I made for snow geese.
 

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Good morning, Ronald~

Gorgeous work - and good use of the cold months! I, too, am fortunate enough to have a heated shop for my boats and carving and home projects.

Question: Where do you get your eyes? My long-time sources have dried up in recent years. I still have a fair supply - but it's always the odd ones that are missing when you need them.

All the best,

SJS
McKenzie taxidermy supply out of Quarry City NC. They came in really quick. They are VanDyke 9mm eyes.
Hope that helps.
 
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