Merganser Decoy in the Making

After three weeks off, then back to work for two weeks straight including weekend, the adjustment has been....to put it nicely, difficult.  This past Saturday was beautiful and it killed my soul to not be out.

A bit of sanity has been the decoy carving class I started on 2 January.  It has been very neat to see a flat pattern go on a big chunk of wood, rough cut out the shape, and after last night's class, beginning to see a "duckish" shape emerge. 

The teacher has many taxidermied ducks of various North American species to serve as models and I have enjoyed getting detailed up close looks at the various species.  It makes me appreciate their fine patterns and coloration.

I thought that the beginning duck was going to be a Lesser Scaup however with a small class, we could choose our duck.  I was torn between several but decided on one that I knew I would have the opportunity to  observe while I was working on it.  My choice, a drake Merganser.

Next came pose selection.  The instructor stated that most do the alert duck with crest high but I chose to do one in a resting position which allowed me to cut out head and body out of one piece. I meant to take a picture of the very first cutout and forgot before I made changes last night.  So from here on, I will document after every class so at the end I can look back.....maybe 4 or 5 months down the road?

It doesn't look like much now yet however from the first cut to now,  I am beginning to see the duck that was hidden in the wood.  While a great many folks dread Monday's as it is the start of a new work week, I now look forward to them.