From August 14 – 16, the Birds of Vermont Museum is hosting the Green Mountain Woodcarvers’ annual three-day seminar. This year, carvers will carve a ¾-scale Mallard drake.
Matt Strong and Bob Lindemann will teach the course; Matt will cover the carving and Bob will assist with the painting. Each carver will have the option of creating the pieces from a simple working decoy, an antique piece, a smoothie, or a more detailed wildfowl carving.
If you are interested in taking the class, visit http://greenmountainwoodcarvers.org/class/class.html and follow the instructions there for more details and to register. The three-day course fee is $120 plus materials. Contact them soon as they need time to prepare blanks.
To become a member of the Green Mountain Wood Carvers, visit http://greenmountainwoodcarvers.org/membershippage.html
To become a member of the Birds of Vermont Museum, visit https://birdsofvermont.org/membership
And more about Mallards: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mallard/
This event is part of the Festival of Woodcarving.
Ready to win?
For this year’s raffle bird, we offer a wood and cork decoy, carved and painted by Leo LaBonte of Essex Junction, Vermont. The bird is about 10.5” from beak to tail, and looks lovely in its temporary home by our guest register. Many visitors have already commented that it would look even nicer in a permanent home (theirs!). Tickets are $1 each, or buy 6 for $5. You can buy tickets by phone, if you like!
Leo LaBonte started carving a little over 12 years ago. He is mostly a self-taught carver with one class under his belt that helped him to overcome a few hurdles and smooth out the process. He mostly focuses on decoy carvings but has also carved ducklings, small songbirds, and a few figurines. He has won numerous awards for his decoys including the Art Knapp Hunting Decoy Contest and the Thousand Islands Museum Decoy and Wildlife Art Show. In more recent years he has also taught his two sons to carve, resulting in 2 more award-winning carvers in the family. In 2009 both sons won awards at the International Wildfowl Carvers Association Young Guns competition!
Although generously donating the Blue-winged Teal to the Museum, Leo usually sells his decoys. He is in the process of putting together a website (under construction as of this writing). If anyone is interested in contacting Leo please call or email the Museum (802) 434-2167 and museum@birdsofvermont.org.
