May Workbench

M

Michael Gardner

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Having been intrigued by palm fronds for the last few years I decided to wade in a little. Stuck on vacation IN Georgia last week, with a carving knife I found a few on the beach and decided they looked a little "merganser-ish". A far cry from what the pros can pull off, but it was a fun experiment, with a little cedar trout in it's mouth.
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What to do when it's 10:30am on a Monday morning and you are still in your jammies?
Well, dress up a few fishing jigs of course. I am using UV resin to encapsulate the thread wrap. A UV penlight to set the resin, followed by sunlight in the windowsill, for a full cure.
 

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As a High schooler, I fly fished a lot and tied my own flies. Tied many things you couldnt buy in the store. Had very good success on subtle color differences in pressured waters. I kind of got burned out on fly fishing for trout. Every stream felt the same. I kind of got good at it and when I realized this is when I was fishing this itty bitty creek and one guy was walking by and told me he hadnt seen a fish caught out of that creek in years. As he is saying that, I am setting the line on a fish. He stopped, flabbergasted and bs'd with me for some time and during that conversation, I caught 3 more in front of him. Just kind of lost the itch after so long.

I then transitioned to bass fishing and I liked the changing behaviors of bass around the spawn. In my mind, there were lots of similarities in chasing bass vs migration in waterfowl. Definitely a new challenge. When i was growing up into the sport and learning a lot, I ran into an old timer. he talked about how he used to absolutely smack bass on a purple jig. So, I bought some things and I tied up a bunch of purple jigs. Next thing I know, Im doing the same thing and just knocking the lips off bass on a purple jig. I kept it close to my chest and finished some little local tournaments and was placing very high. Just a young kid in a little aluminum duck boat placing in top 5 consistently. I fell in love with the sport at that point, but I made the mistake of leaving one out during weigh in and that sparked lots of talk on that lake. I also fell in love with the purple color during that time, and its a big reason my duck calls are purple and my signature color is purple. If anyone ever gets their hands on one of my decoys... the pupils of all my decoy's eyes are purple. If the signature ever wears off the bottom of the decoy, you'll know they are mine if you look in the glass eye and see the purple pupil.

Awesome jigs there. Those purple ones caught my attention in a big way.
 
Hello All,

Here is a wood, wire, and canvas decoy made in the Currituck County style. Materials here are cypress 1' thick, 12-gauge fence wire, and painters' canvas. Staples, tacks, and roofing nails are used for attaching the canvas. 1" cotton ribbon is used for the border and is available on Amazon. The canvas is coated with a thinned wood glue and allowed to dry to seal the canvas. (I have considered using gesso and would like to know if others seal their canvas before painting.) I used KILZ primer for the white and Krylon flat black. I mixed a crimson red and raw umber with a tinge of orange to make the head color.

I believe I could (maybe should) have made the head larger to better match the body. --Any thoughts? The body is about 16" long.

The head is attached with a dowel and a 3" deck screw and glued with Tite Bond II.

Wires are fitted into notches and held with staples. (not pictured)

I welcome any ideas or critiques, particularly regarding the head. I am not much of a carver and recognize the need to improve in that area.


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A little painting progress on the pintail urn. This is day one on the airbrush, there will be at least a day two on airbrush and then onto hand painting. Oil based enamel, though extremely durable, is also difficult do deal with because of drying time. It's kind of a paint and wait type thing. There is no keel on this style of hollow wood decoy which means no handle when painting, so you just go as far as you can one day and wait till the next to do another section. Yes it is to be hunted a couple days a year and yes it does self right. Airbrushing is a good way to lay out the color, but it will still see some extensive hand painting with the Bob Ross, three hairs and air type of detail. Lots of fine vermiculation is in front of me. It's near 95 in the shop today, but sitting directly in front of a water cooler makes it tolerable.

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Joe Friday said:
Hello All,

Here is a wood, wire, and canvas decoy made in the Currituck County style. Materials here are cypress 1' thick, 12-gauge fence wire, and painters' canvas. Staples, tacks, and roofing nails are used for attaching the canvas. 1" cotton ribbon is used for the border and is available on Amazon. The canvas is coated with a thinned wood glue and allowed to dry to seal the canvas. (I have considered using gesso and would like to know if others seal their canvas before painting.) I used KILZ primer for the white and Krylon flat black. I mixed a crimson red and raw umber with a tinge of orange to make the head color.

I believe I could (maybe should) have made the head larger to better match the body. --Any thoughts? The body is about 16" long.

The head is attached with a dowel and a 3" deck screw and glued with Tite Bond II.

Wires are fitted into notches and held with staples. (not pictured)

I welcome any ideas or critiques, particularly regarding the head. I am not much of a carver and recognize the need to improve in that area.


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I’m really tempted to try this.
 
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