LA CONNER — The expression on Duke LeVan’s face was that of someone trying to defuse a bomb.

He sat, eyes peering through a magnifier, calculating his next move. A slip of the tiny sanding tool held in his right hand could be disastrous — much like cutting the green wire instead of the red one.

With surgical precision, LeVan slowly removed layers of a putty-type substance from a goose decoy clamped in a vise. A single glass eye stared back at him. That eye belonged to an unfinished decoy well on its way to becoming a Pacific black brant.

Looking over LeVan’s shoulder were another pair of eyes. These belonged to decoy carver Tom Newell of La Conner. Newell is a professional carver whose finished fowl are considered by many to be works of art.

The 63-year-old Newell is one of 12 professional carvers nationwide chosen by the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Md., to teach local students how to carve and paint working decoys.

The group began carving in early July. It meets twice a week.

In October, the group’s decoys will be entered in a competition.

A year ago, Newell couldn’t participate in the program because of a previous commitment. This year, he wasn’t going to miss the chance.

“It’s a real honor to be asked to do this,” he said. “Carving means a lot to me. Most of my friends I met through carving.”

Newell, a retired meat cutter who has been carving decoys for 40 years, supplied his students with pictures of brant in various poses.

“I had 100 pictures of brants,” explained Newell. “From those, each student picked out five or six to use as reference for their bird’s pose.”

“This is my very first bird,” admitted the 52-year-old LeVan. “I’ve been hunting waterfowl since I was 12 years old. I have known Tom for quite a few years. He told me about this opportunity and I jumped at the chance.

“I mean, how often do you get to learn and get help from a world-class carver? So far, I think they are turning out great.”

LeVan’s decoy will have sentimental value once it’s completed.

“I’m using it to put my hunting dog’s ashes in,” he said. “Bear was 14 years old when he died.”

Newell told the group they’d be sanding for a couple of days. His prediction has come true.

“Honestly, it hasn’t been that tedious until now,” said LeVan. “Working on the eyelid is difficult. I am trying to sand down this putty-type stuff without scratching the eye. Tom said if I do happen to scratch it, I can just take the eye out and start over. I don’t want to do that.

“Next time,” he joked, “my bird isn’t going to have eyes, or a bill for that matter.”

The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to help pay for the program, which is designed to preserve and promote decoy carving in the United States.

The NEA provides the professional carver with an instructor fee and the students with stipends for materials.

“They sent $30 per student for supplies,” said Newell. “That will pay for the paint and paint brushes. We were lucky enough to have some of the wood given to us.

“Once the competition is over, they (the students) will keep a lot of the supplies so they can keep carving if they want.”

Besides LeVan, a machinist from Everett, Newell has taken under his wing Ron Kilby, a 46-year-old bricklayer from Bow, and his 14-year-old son Buck; 31-year-old welder Eric Flones of Mount Vernon; and Tom Kelly of Anacortes.

“I have to compete with my son,” said Ron Kilby. “We have to live in the same house. If his ribbon is bigger than mine, that’s not going to be good.”
Buck Kilby is enjoying the challenge.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Being around all these great people, making friends, just talking about something you like to do is great.”

While a couple of the participants have attempted in the past to carve decoys, several are beginners, including the Kilbys.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Buck Kilby. “It’s my first time. So far, it’s coming along but there is still a lot of work to do. It’s been neat to watch the shape slowly change from a block into a goose.”

Kelly is working on his second decoy. The first he completed with help of Newell.

“He’s just a great guy,” said Kelly. “This is just an awesome experience. It’s great to have some direction. It’s real easy to sit around all day looking at a block of wood.

“I was carving my first decoy and it just didn’t look right. So I’d bring it over to Tom and he’d say I needed to do this. Like I said, it’s all about direction.”

One thing all the carvers have in common is that each is an avid bird hunter.

“I hunt brant,” said Flones. “And I plan to use this decoy when it’s done. I have been carving — woefully— for a couple of years. I met Tom (Newell) though a mutual friend and he’s been my mentor every since.”

Each member of the group started with a block of cedar. After patterns drawn by Newell were used to sketch out the shapes of the brant, a band saw was used to make rough cuts to the wood.

Then it was time to get down to carving.

The toughest part still lies ahead. Painting the decoys is such a methodical process that the group will spend hours practicing their strokes before putting brush to decoy.

“ They’ll do practice boards,” explained Newell. “Then they’ll start on the actual birds. We’ll sit around a table in my garage and paint. That is going to take probably between 12 and 15 hours for these guys. Getting the bird carved is the easy part. The hard part is painting them.”

Buck Kilby is looking forward to getting paint on his goose.

“It’s going to be a lot of work getting it to that point,” he said of painting his decoy. “Then it’s going to be a lot of work to paint it. But I am really looking forward to seeing the finished decoy.”

Newell is more than willing to help in any way he can.

“Tom’s gone as far as to offer to come over to our house and carve there,” said Ron Kilby. “He doesn’t hide anything. He wants you to know all his secrets.”

This is the fourth year the NEA has awarded the Ward Museum a grant for the program. The first two years the program was limited to the mid-Atlantic region. Last year, it was expanded to represent the four major migration flyways in the United States.

The 71 student carvers nationwide will have their completed decoys entered into the Chesapeake Challenge, which is part of the Chesapeake Wildfowl Expo. It will be held in October on the museum grounds. The decoys will be floated and judged as functional working decoys.

Winning decoys in the different categories will be displayed for six months at the museum.

“Sure, it’s sort of relaxing,” said Kelly, “but there is a goal involved. You want it to be a working decoy. I am pretty sure we are all going to use them. I don’t think anyone here is doing a decorative decoy.

“And Tom tells you what’s wrong (with your decoy). He’s a great teacher. It’s been a lot of fun and this group of guys have been a lot of fun to be around.”

While the majority of the group was sanding its decoys, Ron and Buck Kilby were behind Newell’s shop putting their decoys to the test in a tub of water.

Neither effort was perfect, though Ron Kilby’s bird fared a little bit better than his son’s.

“I have some work to do,” said Buck Kilby. “I think I need to move the keel over a bit.”

Newell asked Ron Kilby to push his decoy down into the water so he could see how the breast looked lower in the water.

“That looks better,” said Newell. “Let’s think about putting some lead in the keel so it’s a bit lower in the water. Let’s go back inside and see what we can do.”

After making adjustments to the Kilbys decoys, the birds were returned to the water. Flipping the decoys over, both floated upside down. Tipped to one side, both turned upright.

“Both are real symmetrical,” said Newell. “Both bob front to back and don’t get to rocking. I am really happy with the way they float.”

Buck Kilby still had concerns about the look of his decoy. He wasn’t pleased with the way the cheeks looked.

“Any changes you want to make,” said Newell, “now is the time to do it. Just remember, this isn’t going to be the perfect bird. That just doesn’t happen on your first try.

“So go back inside the house and take a look at that mounted brant on the table. Then decide on the changes.”

Newell will accompany his students’ decoys to the competition. He will join other professional carvers in discussions about efforts to pass on their skills and knowledge.

“This isn’t about winning or even competing,” said Ron Kilby. “It’s about learning. You can’t buy the knowledge Tom has.”

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at .