Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Duck! It May Be A Decoy

 

By Deborah McGuire

GOSHEN – If it looks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s a duck. Look again. It may be a decoy.
Sitting out behind the barn at Jamie Hand’s farm on a magnificent morning was the past, present and future of an art that is synonymous with Cape May County and its surrounding areas – decoy carving.
Harry Shourds, Dave Rhodes, Dave Billig, and Hand gathered together to talk, carve and share their love of carving.
“We make a working tool,” said Hand. “But it’s considered folk art.”
As Hand spoke he took brushes from a jar and dabbed paint onto a decoy he was finishing up for a buyer in Maryland. The buyer had ordered a dozen teals.
“Most hunters today use plastic because of the cost,” said Hand. “Plastic and cork work well, but there’s nothing like a Jersey cedar decoy out there.”
While duck decoys are made all over the country, there are specificities which define a South Jersey decoy. According to the carvers a South Jersey bird will be made of white cedar, will be made in two pieces, will be hollowed out inside. To give it ballast, the carver will add lead weight to the underside. A South Jersey decoy will also have a leather line tie.
With the exception of sawing out the basic shape with a band saw, all of the carving is done by hand. All that stands between a plank of wood and a decoy is a sharp hatchet, a spoke share and a carving knife. The finished carving is then painted by hand.
“These are all functional decoys,” said Hand. “All of us carve in the traditional manner.”
Standing in Hand’s barn were long planks of cedar that were air drying. Sitting on a bench nearby was a group of decoys in various stages of completion.
“We take all the wood that doesn’t look like a decoy,” said Rhodes.
Rhodes, 78, retired from Wheaton Village as an artist. His love of carving, though, started early in life.
“I hunted with a man from Atlantic City,” he said. “I was 13. His son and I were classmates at the Madison Avenue School.”
Rhodes has been carving ducks, cats and shorebirds ever since. He was recently commissioned to carve a series of birds for several colleges to use as references for specimens in banding birds.
He recently made five curlews for the College of William and Mary. Rhodes has been able to follow the birds that have been caught and banded because of his models. The school has been able to track the curlews’ flight via satellite. He showed how the birds had migrated from Maryland to Alaska, down the East Coast and across the Caribbean.
Dave Billig, 23, of Seaville, is the most recent member of the carving group. His interest in decoys was whetted when he went duck hunting as a child.
“I duck hunted when I was young,” said Billig. “My grandpop always told stories of duck hunting and I always wanted to hunt over my own decoys. It’s the ultimate duck hunting experience,” he said, “to hunt over your own decoys.”
Billig is chairman of the Cape May County chapter of Ducks Unlimited. According to Hand, Billing shows “great promise,” as a carver.
Shourds, the most senior member of the group, is a third-generation carver. His family has been carving decoys for over a century.
He has been carving for the past 66 of his 81 years. His work can be found in collections throughout the country. In 1989 Shourds was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment of the Arts. He has been named a national treasure.
The art of carving is passed down from carver to carver. “You won’t find many carvers who didn’t work with an old-timer,” said Hand.
While some believe decoy carving is becoming a lost art, “I beg to differ,” said Hand. He said that at a recent event in Salisbury, MD, master carvers were able to share their art with apprentice carvers.
”Of my six students, three were in their 20’s.”
Learning the nuances of duck carving requires a lesson in anatomy.
“The best way to learn is to have a dead duck,” said Rhodes, “to get the size and specifications.”
In addition to species that can be hunted, carvers also create confidence decoys which are used to create a realistic scene on the meadow.
Hand explained that using a confidence decoy helps set the stage to lure ducks to an area.
While the decoys being carved are functional, they are also considered works of folk art and are highly collectible.
Hand said that a decoy that has been used is more collectible. If handled properly, a decoy that has been used can be handed down a generation.
“Now days you don’t want to repaint them because of the value,” said Hand. “People like the ones that have been hunted.”
According to Shourds a goose carved by his grandfather and sold for $1, was recently sold at auction for $250,000. “That’s a lot of money for a piece of wood,” he said.
Each of the men continues to carve their own decoys.
“It’s something like making your own fishing lures,” said Hand. “It’s the same enjoyment.”
“I love duck hunting to much, I don’t even want to kill them,” said Billig.
“If they outlawed hunting, I’d still go out with my decoys,” added Hand.

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