Some carvings from June

Here are a few shots of some in-process birds I've got going.

First is a low-head mallard I'm carving out of a gorgeous piece of red cedar that Tom Newell gave me. I'll be sad when this is done becuase it's such a beautiful piece of wood to work on.

Next is a pintail carved out of Oregon sugar pine with a basswood head. The tail is not carved in this picture yet, but I'll insert a flexible piece of plastic becuase this is designed as a gunning bird. This is the prototype from a new pattern I drew and I'm pretty happy with the results. This won't be the last I carve from this pattern.

Finally, here is a pair of mallards, also from new patterns I developed recently. I'll be doing another (abbreviated) photo journal of another drake just like the one in the photo here. no really fancy carving on the back becuase they are going to someone who will hunt them hard. Just a little detail on the back to add some interest, and a small undercut on the edges of the primary feathers. 

Some birds headed to Westlake

I haven't posted in some time, mostly becuase I've been working on competition birds, and I don't like posting them while I am competeing them. The good news is that I'm doing ok in the competitions. I won second best in show for gunning birds with my low head mallard at the Core Sound contest in December. In February I headed down to San Diego for the PSWA show. I ended up placing in the best of marsh, but my standard head mallard didn't make it any further. Then it sold so that bird is done competing. 

I'm headed to Westlake, OH tomorrow for the ODCCA show. I've got some birds to compete in the pool and the IWCA tank, but here are few birds I'm bringing just to display and sell. One of these is going into the Firday night swim and sell, sponsored by the decoycarvingforum.com, and other will be displayed in Dwane Ong and Tom Matus' room 123. Stop by and check them out if you are at the show.

Head portraits

Here are some close-up head portraits of the three birds. I love how the oil paint blends when it is wet. 

Some decoys in oil paint

I've spent some time this summer practicing with oil paints. Here are a few I completed recently.

Mallard:

Barrow's Goldeneye

Wigeon

Red Cedar Bird

Here's a mallard I carved from old growth red cedar recently. I've always heard that you need to be extra careful carving red cedar. It seems that many people have a negative reaction to carving it due to the dust. I absolutly loved carving it myself. I made sure I wore my respirator when grinding it but it really carved very nice with both power and hand tools.

This was a piece of test wood for me. I only bought a little bit because I wasn't sure I would like it. Now that I know how it carves, I'm going to load up on it next opportunity I get. I bought from a friend I met in Washinton named Tom Kelly. He runs a lumber shop up in Burlington. The price was pretty amazing as well. I've added his information to the links section of my site if you are interested in getting some yourself.

Update on 2011-10-30 01:58 by Doug Muldowney

You can view finished photos of this decoy in the mallard decoys gallery section of this site.

Drake Mallard

Here's a drake mallard I carved recently. It's made from tan cork and the head is carved from white cedar. I painted it with acrylic paints. I'm especially happy with how the iridescent look of the head came out. 

Another win for the hen mallard

This hen is doing pretty well so far. It just won 2nd Best of Show in the IWCA Amateur division in the 2010 St. Clair Flats decoy show

I took 1st and 3rd best of show in Sacramento

These mallards took first and third best of show in the IWCA novice category at the PDFA show this past weekend. The drake was first and the hen was third.

Contemporary style hen mallard

This one has been in the works for a while now. I base coated it ages ago, then set it aside. I finally finished it up this week and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Some of my 2010 Westlake Decoys

Here's a couple of the birds I brought to Westlake with me. This first mallard was for the gunning bird contest on Sunday. The rules are very strict about carved detail so I carved the primary feathers to appear as if they were raised, even though they are not individually carved. It took third place in mallards. I hoped to do better, but it did pretty good considering there were over 20 birds in the pool.

Here's the birds all sealed up before paint.

And here it is painted.

Here's another mallard I entered in the Saturday IWCA contest. This type of contest allows for more carved and painted detail. This mallard took third best in marsh.