November Workbench
- Thread starter benp
- Start date
Ronald Bock
Member
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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Ronald Bock
Member
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.
patrick mccarthy
Well-known member
William Reinicke
Active member
How do you play this game?
patrick mccarthy
Well-known member
I have no idea. I know they bet money and use dice and cards.
William Reinicke
Active member
Well the workmanship is amazing sir!
Steve Sanford
Well-known member
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.
If you can tell the eyes in this mallard hen are 10 cents a pair you are more discerning than I am.
i can even get 3mm to make eyes for these miniature flyers with a 10 inch wingspan.
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.
If you can tell the eyes in this mallard hen are 10 cents a pair you are more discerning than I am.
i can even get 3mm to make eyes for these miniature flyers with a 10 inch wingspan.
William Reinicke
Active member
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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Noah Shaver
Member
The project on my work bench this month is building somewhere for my workbench to go
Ronald Bock
Member
McKenzie taxidermy supply out of Quarry City NC. They came in really quick. They are VanDyke 9mm eyes.
Hope that helps.
This is about as low-tech as it gets. Simple goose and swan silhouettes cut and sanded from pine boards, and then painted. I seal them with antiquing wax. They are stapled to wreaths I bought at the local hobby/craft store. Wreaths cost $4 each on sale. a very simple thing for Christmas gifts. A package of small bows costs about $3 from Big Lots or Dollar General.
Steve Sanford
Well-known member
Joe~
Nice idea - nicely done!
Merry Christmas - or at least Happy Thanksgiving!
SJS
Cody Foster
New member
Just completed the first batch. These will go in the duck blinds we've built and help each hunter keep up with their ducks. Following a hunt the ducks can stay on them until cleaned. We will take them to the blind on the next hunt where they will stay unless totin' ducks home. I am putting a video together on how I make them. It is fairly easy to do but I figure someone can get some ideas if they want to make their own.
