A day at the Rutgers Institute or.. How I survived the Blizzard of Fordham Ave.

[bballard]

Thanks to all for a great day of fun. Chuck J and Paul worked their butts of to give us all a great canvas goose tutorial. I wish I could have made it for the duration but a wedding reception beckoned and I had to bounce.

Thankfully, Chuck created a collegiate class guide book and I will, or at least I should, have little or know problem with completing the last few tasks if I follow Chucks detailed instructions.

Gentlemen, my thanks to you, one and all.
Ballard

 

[Chuck J]

Your welcome Brian. It was a great class, and wouldn't have been the same had it not been for a great bunch of guys. Here's a group shot with completed bodies (the heads were homework!)

I'll post up a bunch more later today

Chuck

 

[Rutgers]

Thanks to Chuck for doing this and everyone who came and made yesterday's activities a great time. I'm on the way out the door to church right now, but I will post some pictures later. I know Chuck took a bunch too.

We even had the Kalamazoo Gazette show up and take some pictures and do some interviews. Hopefully they put in a plug for the site!

 

[Chris Finkbeiner]

Damn that shop looks clean!

 

[David Robinson]

Way to go Chuck and Paul!!! I'm kicking myself for not taking the class now. It looks like you guys had a great time. I know you guys worked your butts off to put this together. What a way to keep the waterfowling tradition alive!

 

[Chuck J]

More Pics as promised...Here we have the long distance travelers, from Left to right we have Tim, John and Jim made the run up from Illinois, and on the far right, Kristan came up from Fort Wayne:

On the other side of the room, we had the locals, left to right, Brian, Rick, Jeff and Cole:

We werent' quite sure what Brian was trying to do to his goose!

Pat, take note, Paul postioned John close to the first aid kit!

Kristan just had to break the rules:

 

[Chuck J]

After lunch, we put aside our freshly assembled frames, and moved to the pre-assembled (and sealed) frame for wires and canvas.

It was really funny how quiet the shop got when the needles and thread came out...must have gotten the guys out of their comfort zone:

Jim's thinking: "I hope he doesn't post pictures of me sewing on the internet!"

I thought it all went well, everyone took home wire and canvas to finish the frame they assembled in the morning (after sealing of course) along with heads and necks for both decoys. I hope to see pictures of the finished decoys in the future.

Chuck

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Fantastic job guys, I wish I lived closer and could have joined you. On a side note, I can't understand everyone saying that Paul's shop is cold. Seems he has plenty of firewood stacked along a couple walls.

 

[Rutgers]

Here are a few more pics. Seems amongst everything else, chuck managed to take more, and better pics than I did, so most of what I have is pretty similar to what Chuck posted. Here are a few that are different.

The shop. The calm before the storm. Took 3 full Days to get everything cleaned up, organized, run to get tables, etc.

Now if I can keep it this way.

Chuck in action. I never saw him slow down. This is about as clear as a picture I could get without having a strobe light.

 

[Chuck J]

Holy crap Paul, you ought to print and frame that first shot!!!

 

[Zach Houvener]

Very cool guys! I'll be attempting to make a couple here real soon as well...thanks for the pictures!

Zach

 

[Chuck J]

This just in from Mr. Troutman's camera phone:

He shrunk his canvas today and roughed out his head, plans on final sanding the head and gluing it on tomorrow.

 

[Steve McCullough]

Great to talk and catch up with you. Sorry I had to cut it short; duty calls...

Looks like ya'll had a great time. I've never worked with canvas before. It looks really neat.

Hope you can make it up to Westlake.

Best,
Steve

 

[jim Williams]

Chuck and Paul,

Thanks for everything. That was a great class and we all had a wonderful time. It has been said already but can't be said enough, Chuck worked his ass off and gave a great class. The next person is going to have a lot to live up too. Thanks again and by the way, I'm not giving anyone "the finger" in that picture!

Jim

 

[Tim Speight]

Great hospitality! Great instruction! Great group of guys!

Thanks Chuck and Paul!

Tim

 

[Chuck J]

Once again, thanks for making the long trip out. Glad you made it home safe. I figured if the snow storm didn't get you, you may have died of afixiation from Jim's "exhaust leak"

Chuck

 

[harry whitley]

Great looking canvas stretchers. I use to make Swan and Goose decoys like that until Arthur Rightus went to work on my fingers. A classic Currituck Sound decoy. Most of those old Dekes were covered in sailcloth. I gave the last one I made to my friend Bryan Savage.

Glad to see those dekes being made,
Harry

 

[Tim Speight]

Hey Harry how about sharing some gunning history from the Carolina coast. I'm from N.C. originally (Piedmont part of the state - Stanly County...alot of Whitleys up there) and took part in this workshop because I knew there was a strong tradition of Canvas decoys along the Carolina/Virginia coast.

Have any of your old patterns laying around? I'd like to make a Swan.

Thanks!

Tim