A day with a master...

P

Pat Gregory

Well-known member
Tim Speight and I went over to Mike Lashbrook's home in Armington, Illinois to spend an afternoon with Mike. Mike is the eldest of famed Illinois River Carver, Virgil Lashbrook. Mike has been carving decoys for over 51 years and is a master with oil paints. Mike still makes his decoys the old fashioned way, two-piece hollow white pine, sealed in boiled linseed oil and painted with oil paints. Mike is not only a master decoy maker but a top historian when it comes to Illinois River decoys. In his time, Mike not only met and knew many of the prominent Illinois River decoy carvers but, collectors as well.

Tim interviewed Mike regarding the Lashbrook tradition, Illinois River Decoys and his painting techniques. We will be posting up video footage on this at the www.thedecoyshed.org While we were there Mike was restoring a Robert Elliston Bluebill and an oversized Bert Graves mallard drake. Included are pictures of his full sized decoys and miniatures with a full range from the 1960's forward to current day... Enjoy!
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Pat,

Fantastic stuff! I love what you're doing with the web-page and really appreciate you guys sharing the stories. The more it's recorded, the better chance our sport and tradition has to live on. Thanks.
 
Glad to see Mike is getting a shop set up in his new house. Mike is definitely one of the best decoy makers there is today, but underrated.... Thanks to Pat and Tim for doing their website and videos to preserve some of the decoy history that Illinois has to offer.


Tim
 
Wonderful work Pat! Keep up the efforts. You are recording our heritage to save the future for all of us and our children. Cool stuff. Hitch
 
Those miniatures are something else, Pat. Thanks for all the documentation. I do look forward to these posts.
Al
 
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