June "What's on your Workbench?"

Guys - Thank you for the kind words. For me it's simple, each decoy has to be "saying" something or "doing" something. It is thier job in the rig and, their contribution to the group. I think movement is very important and you accomplish that by many different postures in a rig. Sometimes, just tipping a bill up or a head back just ever so slightly makes the difference. Subtle differences make a difference in each decoy. Then, the sum total of all those differences equals a natural looking rig. Just my thoughts and my theory...

I've always said, "Us duckhunters are full of theories..." :)
 
Pat Gregory- I have been lurking on this site for a few months and have become a big fan of your decoys. Can't wait to see that Redhead rig painted.


Here is a high head GE I finished painting last night. Its cork with a cedar head. Hopefully find time this weekend to keel it.
P1000800.jpg

 
Over the past week or so I put away the paints and concentrated on carving some new decoys. This first one is the drake wigeon that I showed on the first post on this thread. I went through three heads to get the right one. The body is New Jersey cedar and the head is white Pine.

View attachment P6110260.jpg.

View attachment P6110261.jpg.

A while back I showed everyone a drake ruddy head that I had made. I finally got around to cutting bodies this week for my ruddy pair. I carved the drake this week. Sometimes you can make a pattern and everything looks great while it's on paper but just doesn't work when it transfers to wood. That was the case with this decoy. What I did was just redraw on the wood as I was working on it and took it back to the band saw twice to get a shape I liked. This ruddy is ready to hollow.

View attachment P6110257.jpg.

View attachment P6110258.jpg.

And this last bird is and has been just for my fun. This started out as a small goose cutout that an antique decoy dealer from New Jersey gave me at Westlake this past March.The wood is New Jersey cedar and was cut during the 1960's so it's very stable, a little hard for my tastes though. I'm very fond of the Toronto style of antique decoys (Chambers, Wells Warin) and that was my inspiration for this form. The cutout was in the form of a half log type and what I did was just take a pencil and draw my best guess of a pattern on the wood and cut it out. Over the past couple of weeks when I had some extra time or when I just needed to work on something different I carved on the body. Really just trying to get a pleasing shape. I went back and forth between making it a black duck or a mallard but settled on a drake gadwall. I took the head pattern from my recent hen gadwall and changed the slope of the forehead slightly and the shrunk the size just a bit to give the impression of a touch more delicateness. When I see one of those antique I'm always impressed with the simplicity yet also how they project a gracefulness, so that's what I was trying to emulate. I have the pair of gadwalls in my hunting rig that were the first decoys that I made from 2x10s and I've never seen an example of a Toronto gadwall so I thought it would be unique. I think that I'm going to add a little carved detail to the back and sides towards the rear just to be different. Something a little abstract perhaps and you can see an idea sketched on there now. His head is white pine and the decoy has been hollowed and is very light. I'm going to leave the bottom rough and rustic with just my brand and signature and weight him with a cast spoon lead and a leather strap for a tether.

View attachment P6110256.jpg.

I have lots of other birds in the works including a bunch of new Labradors (surprised?) a black duck and some divers.
 
Last edited:
My first snow goose attempt. Carved from local white pine, White oak keel with leather tab for line, the black/white is rust-oleum, the bill and little sponging on the head is acrylic. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.
snow1.jpg

 
I guess I need to start sharing with the class. I will post some pictures I am sealing a bunch tonight.

Pat,
On those springs are you doing anything to strengthen the necks? I looks like with the grain of the wood they could have some issues down the road.
 
Brandon - I drive a deck screw up into the neck. Also, I know a carver who could fix them if they did have a problem... ;)

Good hearing from you. Pat
 
I have alot going on this month, finished these Pinnies about a week ago.

I also wanted to do something different and spent quite a bit of time brainstorming. I was fishing one day a few weeks ago and kept watching this female kingfisher working a small school of bait. So then and there the idea took hold.





 
Last edited:
Last edited:
Pat I just have to day I love your decoys. Once I get done moving and can set up my shop again I am going to make a ringbill urn for my lab that just passed and I only hope to make a "simple gunner" that looks half as good as those for her. Keep the pics coming as you do outstanding work and look forward to seeing what have on the bench
 
Great work all! The talent on this site astounds me.

Took a page from Bill and Geoff and made my first none Wisconsin style, old time gunner decoys. Took the St Lawrence River style, with Frank Combs influence, and made a pair of hard working bufs that are destined for the island club on Lake Winnebago, where I am a guest.

Will reattempt posting.
 
Mike, post up some pics of you have them. I grew up in Alexandria Bay, NY so I really like that St. Lawrence River style. I have some of the Coombs and Wheeler patterns if you ever need them.

Brian
 
Which Mud Lake?

The one by Spring Valley/LaSalle-Peru? Can't remember the name of the club, but did hunt there a few times as a kid...my dad hunted it with Joe Tonelli and some other guys that were members...I spent the summer of 1985 helping build and brush the duck blinds for that club....the Illinois flooded that fall just before duck season and wiped all the brush off the blinds...could've cried at all of the boatloads of willows I hauled that just went away!
 
Here is a Common that I just finished up, and a drake Can that is a work in progress. Should have him painted in the next couple of weeks.

DSCN1479.jpg


DSCN1397.jpg

 
Got a few done this June, also trying to finish up the Greenwing hen, and I'm also getting ready to paint the two drake Wigeons.

IMG_1717.jpg


IMG_1716.jpg


IMG_1718.jpg


IMG_1719.jpg

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top