The base for this piece has a small plaque that reads "Salt Creek Greenwing". Salt Creek Waterfowl Management Area was a favorite haunt of mine during our years in Utah, and I shot a lot of greenwings there. I used to hunt the north end of the marsh, and late in the season greenwings would sit south of the point I hunted, on the ice edge where the creek flowed through. The pattern for this piece was a full page photo I found on the back of an old North Dakota Fish and Game magazine.

The bird is hollow and carved from basswood and painted in acrylics. The "ice" is made from painted masonite covered with Envirotex and artificial snow, while the water is cast from Envirotex.

I carved this bird back in the early 90s when we lived in Utah. Avocets were common nesting shorebirds on the marshes I worked on, and when someone loaned me a study skin for reference, I had to carve one. 

The bird is carved from basswood and is hollow. The head and legs were carved from separate pieces of wood so that the grain would run the length of the piece for strength. All feathers are carved, with burned feather detail, and painted in acrylics. For travel purposes, the bird separates from its left leg just below the body.  The base is made from cherry. The water is cast from Envirotex, and the droplet of water on the right foot is made from epoxy.

This carving was inspired by a nice 18.5" brown trout that I caught on a dry fly on the Green River in Utah. Cindy and the kids and I were on a family camping trip over at Flaming Gorge, and stopped at the first access downstream from the dam. The fish came on a #16 elk hair caddis.

This fish is carved from basswood, and some of the fins are inserted. All of the scale detail is burned in, and painting was done in acrylics. The base is a piece of walnut, and the rocks are carved from basswood. The driftwood is modified from a piece of driftwood found downstream from the dam in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

I used to work with sandhill cranes a lot when I was in Utah, but they were too large to consider carving a full lifesize bird. I decided that carving the head and some of the neck of a calling sandhill would be a suitable challenge. I developed the pattern for this bird from some photos I took of a crane brought in to a check station that I was staffing.

The head is carved from a piece of basswood, with all the feather detail burned in. I modified the tip on a soldering iron to burn in the papillae on the red portion of the head. Painting was done with acrylics. The base is laminated from two pieces of walnut.

My wife Cindy really likes river otters, and so one year I decided to carve a miniature otter for her. The otter and base are all carved from one piece of basswood, and the hair detail is burned in. The piece measures just under 4 X 6 inches.

My Aunt Jo had a couple of woodcarvings in her home that I always enjoyed seeing - one of a moose and another of a beaver. The moose carving got damaged, and she sent it to me for repair. After I had done so, I took some slides of the carving so that I could make a pattern for myself. This is the result.

I carved this piece out of butternut. It's the same genus as walnut, with similar grain but lighter in color. I carved the antlers separately so that the grain would run along the palms for strength. The eyes are the heads of small black straight pins. The carving is about 5" long by 7" high.

This is a little whitetail buck carved from a piece of butternut. The deer and base are all carved from one piece of wood. The antlers are carved separately from basswood and inserted. I counterweighted the base by drilling a hole from underneath and pouring some lead in it so the deer would stay in a running pose. The piece measures 4" X 6".

I carved this grouse for my Dad back in the early 2000s. The bird is carved of basswood with cherry feet reinforced with brass rods. The bird is hollow and stands on one foot on a walnut base. The aspen leaves are made from lacquered and painted craft paper.

I did this carving at the request of my sister Jessica who wanted it for a gift. It is carved from basswood with cast pewter legs and is set on a piece of driftwood on a walnut base.

This shorebird decoy was carved for a specific category at the competition in Perham, Minnesota in April of 2023. The category specified a working bar-tailed godwit decoy. I took some inspiration from Keith Mueller and some of his shorebird carvings that have the fragile head and bill stored inside the decoy when it is not being hunted. In this instance the head and bill are carved from basswood, and the body is carved from cedar. The decoy body is in two pieces and is hinged and has a clasp to hold the decoy closed in transit. This feature was a hit with the judges, and the decoy won a first in category and also a best in show.