4/27

First shop night after Worlds and it was busy with stories of the weekend..

Jjust finishing up some Teal gunners... Cork bodies and white pine heads...

Two drakes and one hen... carved and will seal them up with some exterior house paint when I get a chance and then float them and then paint them to look like Teal (I hope)...

4/26

Back from Worlds... had a good time, seeing friends and family...

Got to carve with my brother and we helped others finish a Wigeon decoy...

Here is one shot of the rig on the table and some shot of the rig floating ... was not embarrassed with my rig up against the other.. that was the first hurdle..

even though they did not place I proved to myself that I could make a World Rig..

I'm lucky that I have a great support team...

Well team there is next year and I got some ideas... now I will just work on some order birds and I want to finish some antiques and let them out side for the weather...

4/18

It was the night before Worlds... and your running around the house like a chicken with it head cut off...
Checking your list over and over and packing the truck and remembering stuff that was not on your list... and packing that...
Looking fore ward to going to Worlds.. but there will be a tension in the air since I'm entering at the world level this year...
First going to carve a Wigeon with my brother, then enter my birds, then judge some birds, then wait for the results, then hopefully relax, then come home...
Looking fore ward to seeing family and friends, talking with other carvers

Wish me luck...

4/17

Well here it is a couple of days till I leave for the Worlds... After setting these birds up a few times...

I decided to go back to my first motto.. "less is more" so after another trip to the fabric store and some base rework... this is it... now the birds look like they are floating on the ocean off the Maine coast... that was the look that I wanted... and after many props added and taken away, only going to have some by the sign for the rig...

Now to start packing... The birds will sit until tommorrow to cure after I put sealer on them last night.. that should protect the paint a little...

Wish me luck...

4/14

Well tonight my sister Jeri came out and we figured out how to display the rig..

Two photos of the experimenting with different fabrics... then we added different props (rocks and drift wood) we did not want too much stuff that would take away from the birds...

The last photo is the rig on their bases to give them some height and the fabric and props...

To us it looks good at every angle

My theory is "when you are entering the world competition you should not just throw your birds on the table and hope for the best look.. you should at least give your display a little thought"

4/10

Well the day I think is finally here.. I think I'm done painting the rig... just finished the hen a couple of minuates ago... put all the birds together and they look good, if I have to say so myself...

I'm going to finish the bottoms and work on the display for the table at Worlds...

Here are some shot of the finished hen... and one of the leg butt...

4/9

When things go right they really go right... painted the sides today and only had to do it once..

Maybe painting all those feather is paying off...

Working with browns and blacks... and adding some splits and some dark mysterious color ..

Here is a photo of the drake and hen together ... now to put the push on to get these birds done...

4/7

Well another night of painting... After a phone conversation with my brother, he suggested that the hen needed something.. I worked on the back tonight... adding different values of brown and blacks...

Also painted the primaries... just the side and the head to go...

4/5

Here are some shots of the hen Scoter in process... just have to figure out if this is the way to go... does the hen need to be lighter or darker... I have to quit thinking what these birds are for and just paint what I see... the stigma of the World Carving Competition can be nerve racking at times... I bet other carver from around the country are in the same boat that I'm in... coming down to the wire are always second guessing ...There will come a time that I think that the hen looks good and just be done...

Also a photo of the finished Redhead hen from the class that I taught.. the Redhead hen is now stained and waxed...

4/1

Working on the hen Scoter for the rig... came up with a plan, now just have to follow thru...

The bird is brown.. the trick is making that brown bird interesting...

just like the Scoter drake being black and doing alot of black on black... now it is brown on brown..

will add some splits and some interior shading... every hen that I look at is different, just trying to hit a happy medium...