The Carving Process
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Watch a video of the carving process. CLICK HERE View images of the the carving process. CLICK HERE
Sometimes something Mike sees in the wild will inspire a carving, or it could be a photograph or an idea brought to him by a customer. Once the idea is formed, the multi-step process begins. A pattern is drawn, laid on a block of wood & excess wood is removed on the band saw. Then Mike chips away “everything that doesn’t belong” and sands it smooth. If the carving has feather detail, each feather is then drawn, and Mike uses a wood-burning pen to add every single stroke of each feather. When wood-burned, the detail remains when layers of paint are added. Mike uses acrylic paints, and usually glass eyes and in most cases, pewter feet, which are cast from real bird feet. Once the carving itself is complete, it’s often placed within a unique setting.
Each carving is an original. No two are alike. A typical duck with full detail will take him about 40 hours to complete.
If you have a specific bird and size or idea in mind, Mike can tell you what the investment will be, or you can tell him, “I want a mallard and I have $xxx.xx to spend.”, and he’ll work within your budget. If it’s not exactly what you expected or wanted, there’s no obligation to take the carving – but no carving has ever been turned down.