Re: Long Neck Mallard I understand Tom Matus is putting out a book on how to antique ducks. A Mallard Drake by one of the Caines sold at auction for $165,000!!! Jax. I first saw Toms new book "Antique style Duck Decoys" in the last issue of WoodCarving Illustrated, the Merganser's on page 72 really caught my eye and I ordered the book. The Wood Duck on the cover was carved and painted for the book with a lot of detail in the step by step, Antiquing (Chapter 5) was the very last thing he did. Here is a snip from the beginning of Chapter 5 and this is the very spot where I hit the wall " Prior to painting, we stressed the decoy some. One reason we stress the decoy before we paint is that many carvers who start with a project like this end it right about here. They have put a few hours into painting the bird and now decide that the bird looks very good. They would rather not add anything that will ruin or disrupt the paint job. (If you feel this way, I do understand where you're coming from. While making the decoy in this demonstration, my wife wanted me to leave it "as is"". The decoy below is a "Caines Folk-art Decoy" Bill |