Dale A. Carlisle Decoys
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Gunning Decoys Dale A. Carlisle
By Laura Jean Whitcomb
Duck decoys may be one of the earliest American folk arts. In 1924, archeologists found 11 ancient working decoys, estimated at 1,000 years old, in the Humbolt Range of western Nevada. According to the experts on “Antiques Roadshow,” Indians often made these decoys by weaving reeds into the shape of a duck or by mounting the feathery bird skin onto a frame. “It was the first true folk art used for a purpose,” says Dale Carlisle, a master craftsmen who is continuing the heritage of duck decoys.
Dale’s gunning decoys are a combination of two of his passions: Wood and hunting. He’s the founder of Carlisle Restoration Lumber in Stoddard. He also grew up in a family of duck hunters, and recalls “going into the barn and seeing decoys. I liked the looks of them. Then I hunted a bit and saw that they were used for a purpose,” he says. “I liked woodworking, liked to paint and liked the fact that the decoys were used 100 years ago to procure food for people. They had a purpose.”
When Dale and his wife were first married 42 years ago, they lived for a time with trickshooter Ernest Lind. Lind was also a teacher and a woodworker, carving decoys and bringing them to shows, and Dale learned to carve from him. In the 1970s Dale founded his lumber company, and didn’t have much time for carving. But he did have time to learn about wood and “was able to get a lot of nice decoy wood through the business,” Dale says. Today he works mornings at Carlisle Restoration Lumber, and spends the afternoons carving replicas of antique gunning decoys.
A decoy — whether it be a including duck, goose, loon or swan — starts with a simple square block of cedar. Dale places it on a drill press and hollows it out. Since these are award winning decoys — they are not just art to put on a mantle, they follow all the specifications needed to be used for hunting — carving is a sensitive process. Take too much wood off, and the head will stick up too far out of the water. After several hand carvings, Dale wraps the block in Saran Wrap and places it in a sink full of water to see how the decoy will float.
“Once it balances well, you can adjust with the keel, a strip of wood on the bottom of the duck that stabilizes the duck just like a keel on a boat,” Dale says. “You’re carving for beauty and application; birds entered in a show have to float properly. They have to be able to be used.”
He picks up a Goldeneye, a diving duck with a blackish iridescent green head and a white circular patch between the eye and the base of the bill. The glass eyes, bought from a taxidermy company, match the real bird’s brilliant yellow irises. It seems like this bird would be heavy, but it is light as a feather. But light doesn’t mean delicate; Dale makes these birds tough so they can be thrown out into the water without a worry that the head or tail might break off. “This is one of my favorite ducks,” Dale says of the New England based Goldeneye. It is also a favorite of many judges — it has won first place in the International Wildfowl Carving Competition and the California Wildfowl Hunting Division, and third place at the World Shooting Rig.
When the carving is complete, each decoy is line painted with brush strokes. It can take Dale up to two days to paint a “pocket,” a patterned section of the decoy, and up to a week to finish the decoy. The final bird is water ready and counter-weighted so that it will right itself from any position in the water. In early 2000, Dale started to sell his birds at galleries and online under his second business: Gunning Decoys Dale A. Carlisle.
Dale is continually learns more about his craft. He attends shows, sometimes judges decoy competitions and enjoys meeting other carvers and duck hunters. “Every time you talk to an old time duck hunter, you learn something new,” Dales says. For example, when ducks are put in the water, they have to float at a certain height. The water level has to be accurate to the anatomy of the duck, or other ducks might sense that it is a decoy.
He can also tell you a bit about each bird and its history as part of early New England’s business trade. “Shorebird decoys were put on sticks in the sand,” Dale says, explaining why a group of three shorebirds sit on sticks above a pedestal. “They were shot and sold for $2 a bushel between 1880 and 1930, usually shipped to New York and Boston. They were hunted almost to extinction. Back in the turn of the century, it was quite a business.”
Antique duck decoys are also quite a business. A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1951), an East Harwich, Mass., carver considered the best decoy maker ever, had one of his Canada Geese sell for $684,500 at a 2000 Sotheby’s sale. Dale’s handcrafted gunning decoys are not that expensive — shore birds are priced at $250, ducks are in the $1,000 range and geese and loons, much larger birds, are priced at $1,600 — but there is no doubt that Carlisle’s work may one day fetch a similar price. Gunning Decoys Dale A. Carlisle are available at the Grantham Stonewall Gallery and at www.gunningdecoys.com
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