Rustic Yellowlegs

Hand rasped rustic yellowlegs with cut nail beak on muted driftwood base.

My second attempt at selling on line - it is so different than selling in person at a show. These birds are made with the tools I was taught to use 50 years ago in the old boat shop - a bandsaw, a couple of old meat saws, modified broken band saw blades, draw knifes, hatchet, homemade chip knifes and rasps. The bandsaw or a old line shaft swing saw dimensioned the wood to working size. The saws, hatchet and knifes brought the bird out of the wood and chip knives and rasps sweetened the lines. The goal was simple - take away what didn’t look right, remembering that what looks right may not be what's real. A decoy does not have to look like the bird to you it has to look like a bird to a bird. Work the shape to it is fair then finish it to harmonize with that shape and to capture the essence of the bird.