Durability was an issue when I started making carved burlapped foamers 20 years ago. Back then there was very little information and very few people were making carved and burlapped foamers. For many years I took the advice of others regarding paint and such, none of it was very durable. I needed to address the strength of bills and tails. At first I was sculpting bill and tails by adding apoxy sculpt which greatly improved the durability, but paint was still a problem and occasionally bills would break off. I kept pressing on and there was no one to ask for help.
I was pretty much flying blind with developing a process and all the while was getting rampant and ugly criticism from people from the wood and cork decoy world. That just became fuel. I continued to try things, of course in the carved foam world, there are no rules, only figuring how to make a strong durable decoy.
I began to have requests for crane decoys, I was making about 100 of them a year for several years and it became necessary to figure out a way to make things quicker and more consistent. I made a crane head out of wood and created a mold out of smooth on rebound 25 with the guidance of Tom Rowe. The heads were poured with smooth on onyx. I don't know what it would take to break onyx, I never have. Far superior in strength to wood, I often put them in decoy bags bill first. Once I saw the benefits of onyx strength, my mind started racing, what other uses could I find. One was making wing tips, then tails, even a foot. Lots of things were leaning more to the artistic and creative side of things, but it's no good if it's not durable.
Although I've done a lot of woodcarving, it's never been part of the decoy world. I'd consider myself more of a multimedia sculptor and painter. When I carve wood it's purely decorative like these teal.
I treat my decoys like nice wood decoys and carry them in slot bags, mostly to keep them clean, especially divers.
Now as to flocking, this was what I was seeing on line with flocking goose heads. Factory flocking is weak at best, but what I was seeing with home flocking guys was better, but the glue that flocking companies was poor. I tried every type of flocking glue and settled on rustoleum gloss. Then I went one step further and started double flocking and I knew we were on to something. It's like the ultimate thick coat of paint, super durable. On a side note, anything white will be flocked twice, but handprinted flat white rustoleum, it's not only easier to keep clean, but it's whiter than flocking white, and for this old diver hunter white and black are king.
I've made thousands of decoys and flocked 10's of thousands. I have no idea how many carved foamers I've made, but the only ones I have access to are the ones I just gave to my son for Christmas. I consider this last dozen the next level of durability with a nod to artistry. I'm not a decoy maker, I'm an artist. I put a lot more personality in most of my decoys than would ever be remotely necessary to decoy a duck, but I just can't help myself.
It's still onward and upward, who knows what we can come up with this coming year, but we are trying all kinds of new things.
These are the onyx crane heads.
These are a pair of carved foamer cranes with the onyx heads. I made over 600 of them. The upright was run over by a suburban and then repaired, then I sold them to Final Approach, I just wished they were better at painting the production decoys at the factory.
