Scrap of knotty pine / lighter wood I found near in-laws NC mountain home. Holes are from termite infestation – many termites exited many weeks later!
Beginnings of a Red Oak Canvasback Duck; this piece of Oak was found on the side of the road in Asheville, NC. Oak Canvasback ‘in progress’Future Ringneck Duck – PineRingneck Duck ‘in progress’ – PineEucalyptus wood found on the side of Toll Rd 261SB Irvine, CAEucalyptus Duck in progress from found log aboveLiving near an avocado orchard in Southern California, I was able to find a few scraps for future ducks… Here is the Eucalyptus Duck ‘cleaned up’ best I can – definitely took a head shot!“Show Side” of the Avocado Duck! His other side has a blown out beak unfortunately.Avocado Duck’s good sideAvocado log #2 Ready to go!Avocado Log #2 Collected off Portola Rd & Orchard Hills Avocado OrchardR side Avocado Duck 2 – crazy dark graining / natural staining…also a hole in his headL side Avocado Duck 2 – beautiful wood scrap and smells amazingFuture Pine Duck 2! Can’t wait to see what happens.“Pine Duck 2” looking like a drake Ringed Neck Duck to me!Pine Duck 2 – Now drake Ringed-Neck Duck for sure!Here we go! New piece of scrap ready to quack!!This beautiful piece of wood ended up not being so easy to form; the Oak was incredibly dense and when it dried out, cracked (not quacked) up a lot. She is still very pretty and a welcomed new member of our family.Second Eucalyptus creation on the way – I found this wood at a freeway tree trimming operation in Irvine, CAEucalyptus Duck #2 before the clear coat! This was an amazing carve. The holes you see in the duck were from Longhorned wood-boring beetles. One came out of the holes while I was shaping!! Scared the shit out of me :))Eucalyptus #2 Finished product – what beautiful grain you can see after the clearcoat. Chunk of Podocarpus Tree cut down in my yard in Irvine, CA – can’t wait to see how it cuts up…quack, quack.Podocarpus Duck – very damaged piece of wood but at least no boring beetles crawling out of it!“a side” of Podocarpus Duck – can see many through cracks at base of neck from this pic; other side (“b side”) is wrecked. We’ll see how she finishes up.Finished Podocarpus Duck w/ major veining and cracking adding to her beauty.Cypress chunk from yard work at my house! Let’s see what happens with this piece…Cypress Duck 1 – amazing smell as I shape this new member of our family.Yard Cypress Duck 1 finished…a little unlucky with some bad knotting and cracking but beautiful marbling and grain…one of the smallest in our family now.Arizona Cypress chunk #2 from my yard – going to explore some new beak looks if the wood isn’t too brittle in that area.Quite the long beak on this one!! Like a Merganzer and an Ibis got together 🙂 Arizona Cypress from our yard didn’t disappoint once again.Arizona Cypress scrap #3! These little pieces of wood are gnarly and full of bugs when I start, but I’m getting hooked on how beautiful they look when I’m done with them.Cypress Duck #3 with all her bug infestation and imperfections…left side (looks beautiful to me)Yard Cypress Duck #3 – right side beautiful.My last chunk of Arizona Cypress from the tree cut down in my yard! #4 is going to be the finest one yet, let’s see how it goes…My last piece of Arizona Cypress (for now) turned out exceptionally beautiful! Quack, quack! Welcome to the flock little guy 🙂I found a cut down California Sycamore tree along the side of the 405 freeway in Irvine, CA! I pulled over of course and loaded up three pieces that weren’t too infested with the “Sycamore Borer Beetles”… this hardwood is native to Western US but found all over and down through Baja MX too. Used primarily for chopping blocks, and furniture manufacturing but now it’s going to become a duck! Can’t wait!What a beautiful piece of wood! (very difficult to shape though…so hard) The California Sycamore scrap now quack, quacks!Another piece of California Sycamore…I’m ready for some more!Here she is! Sycamore Duck #2 and she sure is pretty. Look how the grain flows around her head…and how that boring beetle hole looks like an eye! Complete luck because you never know the beetle holes naturally transfer through the block of cut wood. With a cut-off scrap piece that was attached to this chunk of wood, I made Jessica a bowl for Christmas! Without a lathe, it made it tough to finish the interior bottom of the bowl, so I put gold flaked resin (next photo below).Sycamore wooden bowl with gold flaked resin bottom made for Jessica.Okay, this will be another California Sycamore Duck…really worried about the quality of this scrap I found on the side of the road…riddled with beetle holes and trails as you can see from this pic. Let’s see what it becomes!Well, I didn’t think she would quack up…I mean crack up like this!! She is still welcome in the flock and has a cool knot on her head or crown, and beetle holes on back and underbelly. You never know how the scraps will shape up 🙂Another chunk of Podocarpus Tree that we cut down in our yard in Irvine, CA…let’s see what she quacks up to be!Podocarpus Tree Duck #2 from my yard turned out great! Welcome to the flock!This little scrap piece of wood came from my neighbor’s Peruvian Pepper Tree. I let it dry out for many weeks so let’s see what she becomes!!What a beautiful little duck! Welcome to the flock. Large knot on her back but the pepper tree scrap has amazing grain and was soft and easy to sand.I found this piece of maple in Ojai, CA in the pouring down rain! It was in front of a house neighboring our hotel down the street and I couldn’t help myself 🙂 Lets see what it becomes! Vacation bonus find!Beautiful graining and color to this rot infested scrap of Maple…quack, quack!Another piece of scrap from my neighbor’s Peruvian Pepper Tree! Let’s see what it becomes!…can’t wait, this wood is super soft and easy to work with.Pepper Tree Duck (#2) became a feeding position duck because of its lack of size, and my inability to freehand carve really small ducks 🙂 Quack, quack welcome to the flock!Piece of Monterey Pine that recently uprooted and fell over near the entrance to our neighborhood in Irvine, CA. Tree was very much alive but recent heavy rains loosened shallow root ball and it fell over. I grabbed a big piece from the tree crew cleaning it up! Let’s see how it quacks!Wow! The graining (especially throughout her head) turned out just beautiful…enjoy!Here we go! I’ve been searching for a piece of an Olive Tree because they are in almost every yard here locally in Southern California. Finally, my neighbor down the street had one of theirs cut down….me carrying it home below:Ughghgh…this will make a few ducks! (big piece of Olive Tree from neighbor’s house)Quack, quack! She turned out great. I still have a large piece of this Olive log remaining, welcome to the flock!Another Monterrey Pine Tree chunk I’ve been letting dry out for some months…last one was so beautiful – graining especially! Can’t wait for this one to start waddling around 🙂Second Monterrey Pine Duck – short beak and all, she sure turned out pretty! Again, amazing graining with this amazing log I found.My last log from the Monterrey Pine tree that fell outside my neighborhood…Pine Duck #3, who will you be? Wow, I really enjoyed this piece of wood and proud of the duck it became. I approached this as a Pintail Hen, however the sappy knot in her neck and chest area prevented me from shaping lower jaw and upright posture. Her graining is absolutely amazing, this photo doesn’t do it justice. Another Monterrey Pine Duck is welcomed to the flock!This is a mini Mallard Drake I attempted out of a basswood block…I’m brand new to painting obviously! (US Quarter Dollar used for scale)American Golden Eye duck out of basswood block. 50 cent piece for scale. Another Basswood miniature…this one was attempted to resemble a drake Gadwall …these little ducks are a lot of fun and easy to take with you! Quack, quack welcome to the flock little guy!I was asked to try to make an alligator of some sort for a childhood friend who is a big UF Gators fanatic…I chose this eucalyptus log to try.Well, here is what turned out! A stalking alligator with head out of the water.Beautiful Eucalyptus log became this beautiful duck! Check out the amazing colors after the clear coat sealant!We did some tree trimming in our yard and I now have a few coastal live oak branches to build minis with!Cute little reclaimed oak duck from my yard!Red Oak beauty with amazing grain!!!! I’m very proud of this piece of wood I found.Olive tree log from my yard ready to become something different and special. Quack, quack, quack!Three little ducks in a line!Red Oak “catch-all” dish with gold flaked resin bottom.Assorted Mini’sAnother Olive Tree scrap ready for a mini!Another mini Ring-Necked Duck I decided to paint…love him!Unknowingly, this oak log I found on a vacation in the central coast of CA was infested with wood boring beetles…This beetle infested wood was interesting to work with…tunnels and rot throughout and many live beetle larvae found…probably 20 or so!!!I chose this eucalyptus log to make a duck for my dear college friend Brewster…let’s see how it turns out!Pretty spectacular, I hope he likes it as a ‘house warming’ gift…even with the unfortunate fissures on beak and knot on head 🙂 Another Olive tree log from my yard…What a beauty she is! Quack, quack!
