Stress just goes away when
I come through those two doors
right here.
When you come in, it's like
the rest of the world goes away
and I can go back to some of
the memories when I was a kid.
You know, I see a picture
of my dad up here,
you know, or a decoy
that I carved 20 years ago.
I think I was about 12 years old
when I started.
I've always loved birds.
I've just always been
fascinated.
The only reason my dad
could go duck hunting
was if I came along.
Every Saturday and Sunday,
I remember waking up
in the bottom of a skiff,
duck hunting.
I always was thinking about it.
In varsity baseball,
the coach told me to go in,
and I said, "No,"
I'm carving a decoy
with my shoes off on the bench.
[laughs]
When I was 13 or 14 years old,
you know, making $25-$35
for a decoy, that was pretty
good money.
I've just always strove to get
better at it and trying
to get more realistic at it.
I did a mourning dove that won
at the world championships.
I took it to him
and I showed it to him,
and he said, "I can't believe
it's not real."
And that, to me, was another
big reward that, you know,
I finally accomplished
something.
I made my dad happy, you know.
I was working probably
70-80 hours a week doing it.
I won at all these contests.
Well, then I ended up
getting orders on top of orders
on top of orders.
And I could never do
what I really wanted to do.
So I just kind of got
burnt out from it.
I did my first feather
about three years ago
at Christmastime.
This is a secondary flight
feather of an eagle.
It looks like an "S".
It's got a leading edge and
then it's got a trailing edge
that comes up like this.
I've got to lay out where
the rachis is.
The rachis is the center
of the feather.
I just came back down
in my shop
and started whittling again.
This is what's so nice
about the bass,
that it just--
As long as your chisels
are very, very sharp,
it just peels off
really nicely.
You can only carve one mallard.
One mallard's a mallard.
But now, there's 5,000
different feathers on a mallard,
so I can carve 5,000 feathers.
A feather, we all just
take for granted.
But it's one of the most
amazing things that there are,
is that this thing can fly!
This is a red tail hawk feather
here.
So now what I'm gonna try to do
is what I call,
is put the life into it.
That's by creating differences
in heights, splits.
I showed everybody
at Christmastime,
and they were just,
all my family were in awe.
They're going--
They were all touching it,
going, "This isn't real?"
So now comes
the wood burning part.
I'm burnishing the wood,
and I'm creating a tiny groove.
My wife does farmers markets.
I took them along with me,
because I just sat there
with her all day long.
I had six pieces that I took
along, and I sold all six,
just like that.
And the light bulb went off
and I'm like, this really
might be something.
We aren't allowed to own
a feather,
other than a game bird feather.
It's a federal offense to have
a feather in your possession.
People were going,
"You can't have those!
You can't have those feathers."
You know,
"What are you doing with those?"
And I said,
"Well they're not real.
They're made out of wood."
And then they were like,
"Wow, that's really neat!"
It's even more special.
Then they're trying to see,
where is it not real.
Where, you know, how did you
do this, how did you do that?
I use a wet-on-wet technique
where, I try to blend the colors
when they're wet to give it
a little bit softer feel,
because feathers
are really, really soft.
That feather changes,
so many different hues
through the progression of it.
Through wear, through age.
I'd go nuts if I didn't have
this.
My reward is to see a smile
on somebody's face,
and that I fooled them!
That I can make somebody happy.
To see the look on their face
when they're like,
"That's not real?
I've got to show my friend!"
That'll end up inside,
just like this.
Again, you can see,
it's a little bit different.
I change up all the time.
There's not one
that's ever the same.
It's trying to make something
as best as I possibly can,
and fortunately enough for me,
I'm thinking when I'm 80 or 90,
that's when I'll finally
start to get good at it.