October "What's on your Workbench?"

John Lawrence

John Lawrence

Active member
October and that means Hunting season around my home. Ducks come in around here on the 15th along with Grouse and Woodcock. Pheasants come in on the 22nd. Throw in a possible weekend Salmon trip to upstate New York later this month and the fact that I'm on vacation for two weeks starting on the 15th makes for one great month to be outdoors.

Easton is six weeks away and preparation for that show is taking up most of my time at the bench. As I've stated before I see Easton as the benchmark for where the collector's interests lie, so this is an important show for me. I've had a lot of success the last couple of years with mallards and as a result have been making several for next month. The first decoy have to show you this month is the Toronto Mallard drake that I had started on last month's thread. I wanted to change directions with my paint somewhat so I took a lot of time with this one while I was figuring things out. As usual I painted to a theme and the two words that I wrote down were "Dark" and "Vibrant". What I was looking for was the look of a well aged out decoy and the mellowness that develops in oil paint over time. Here it is finished.

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When I see a mallard drake I often get the impression of squareness. So while looking for new directions in my paint I also tried to incorporate that theme of square into the shape of the decoy mainly by having a more abrupt termination of the breast line and the rump. This decoy took a lot more time than I had anticipated because it didn't fit my normal style. After many adjustments to the shape I got to one that I'm comfortable with. My plan is to put a similar paint scheme on this one as the Toronto mallard.

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I wanted to use a sleek low head to contrast the squareness of the body, I'm not quite sure it works so we'll have to wait until after he's painted to find out.

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And last to start of this thread for this month I have the finished hen Toronto mallard ready to be painted. Since I broke away from my normal paint scheme on the drake I'm planning on something different for the hen also. These three decoys are all hollowed cedar and are very light.


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I'm also working on several redheads, Labradors and I'm still painting that hen black duck, so there is quite a few pieces on my workbench this month.

What's on your Workbench this October?
 
Just finished up a few orders. Delaware river mallards and a black duck. oils and cedar. been doing more traditional decoys lately.
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Sean those are awesome as usual! Do you allow visitors to your shop while working? I'd love to observe how you paint.
 
Nice work John, Hope the Vaca is productive.

I like the Mallards Sean. You're one of the only guys I know of who can "switch around styles" and still have them easily recognized as yours.
 
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After sitting unused for the past 5+ seasons Thomas and I pulled out the rig of E Allen super mag goldeneyes and started a repaint job on them. We are about 75% done.

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A friend loaned me eight 330 conibear traps. Waiting for the first freeze to drive moccasins into their winter holes so we can start trapping beavers on the hunting property.
 
Well,
It's not wood or cork, but it did get run thru my bandsaw. Makeing 4 sleepers- 2 Bluebill drake, 1 Bluebill hen, and 1 Redhead drake to round out 4 dozen regular head/low head burlapped foamers to complete the rig. Tomorrow I plan on putting on the last coat of mastic and letting them dry a couple weeks before keeling and painting. A little paint on these, along with my hen Redheads, and it'll be time to start on Cans.

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-Bill
 
Eric~I didn't see a safety by the traps, if you don't have one~ get one& USE it! Also have your trapper buddy show you how to use a rope to release your self, by your self, when one of those things get ya. Setting tongs are verry usefull too. Rember conis are just a machine, like a saw, they don't care what they hit. Have fun trapping, its a blast! Let us know how it goes& be safe.(the smaller ones are quite tasety too!)
Dennis
 
Denis
do you have a recipe? I had it at a game dinner and it was good, but at another it was not.
Is there a secret in the prep like venison?

About the decoys. You all are doing great work. I like to see a few ideas that are out of the box. Each builder\carver brings something to the table for those of us looking from the sidelines. Thanks for the pictures to all.
 
Nice to see this post fill up so fast. Some great work being done out there.

John - The traditional Toronto style goes well with your oil paint. Curious to see the what you do with the hen...

Sean - Those Malards are perfect all around. One of my favorite piars of yours. I sent a an email about paint...


This is another of my Tuckerton entries. It's a little different for me and was entered in the contemporary Barnegat division, but is really just a coastal shape with Oliver Lawson style paint. I'm working on its mate for a customer

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Thanks guys. Charlie I stopped doing them a while back because a lot of guys were doing them at the time and want to try something different.
 
Sean, Know you dont need a halfwit from england to tell you how good those delaware style birds are., But they are truly magnificent. A nicer pair of delaware birds I have yet to see, well perhaps your stellars.. everything I like about decoys;bird art I love.

Thankyou for sharing. Paul scott
 
Made this quicky drake wood duck from scrap cork.
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I decided I liked the side profile, but it was too skinny. So i re-drew it fatter. My brother saw that and laughed, and said I should paint the fatty as a hen for him. Sharing the same grade-school age sense of humor I decided to do just that....
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Some guys like big girls!
 
Bob B, like most wild game you need to remove the glands. Beaver have a pair of castersacks& oil sacks located by the vent, just under the meat by the vent that need to be cut out& a fatty looking gland in the front arm pits(sometimes these are removed when skinning). I remove all external fat from it, like I do for deer. I have no special recipes, just make stews or grind it for tacos, spaghetti or meatloafs. It should be good in any venison recipe, as its not as dry of meat as deer. I have found the bigger ones can be stringy and tough. The smaller(35 or 40#) are much better.
Dennis
PS if you clean many, save& dry the caster glands, as they were worth as much as the pelt last year!
 
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