A day in George Williams decoy shop... aka "the dungeon"

BillS

BillS

Well-known member
7 years ago George invited me over to talk carving and watch him work. Just watching him that day acclerated my carving light years ahead and for some reason I never took him up on watching him paint, untill yesterday. I have been struggling with my hen divers for years and george again offered for me to come over and we would each paint a decoy and for me to see his process. For those that don't know George was an abstract painter before he got into decoy carving, so his process is that of an artist, not someone like me who would prefer to paint by numbers. I have been over to his place numerous times but finally brought my camera and took a few pics of his shop.


Big Welcome!
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300+ decoys a year on a sears craftsman bandsaw.
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There are a few decoys down here, old upper bay birds, trades, lots of his stuff from 35 years of carving, but GHG Hot Buys????.
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I have been there enough to know where the neat finds are. This folky little bird george carved 1976 if you look closely there are is feathering carved in on the head.

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Hollow blackhead coming into shape.

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George allways stress have a specimen in hand to get the colors close to what a real bird looks like, hen redheads today.

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the end result, I brought a couple of my birds over, and watched his process and painted along with him. he painted the snuggle head in the front, I painted the high head and the far back snuggle head is where I was at before before watching him. For anyone starting out carving, getting with a local carver will be far better than any book or video.

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bill, Thanks for coming over and picking my brain before it rots!
Always have a good time passing on what little information i have managed to tuck away.\Hey, the least you could have done was post pics of the transofmed hot buys! Bob H dropped them off and said, " Paint these up for Argentina!" We now will have 30 pintails, 21 chiloes and 9 white faced whistlers.
Having someone paint with you always tends to stretch your own oeuvre--The best part of the day ocfurred when we based out the sides of the hens and Bill remarked that the paint was turning green!! Good old raw umber does that--
Bill, that photo of the alert hen really tells me that you did manage to capture the essence of the deke--Hope that overload yesterday stays in place.
Thanks for posting the pics---Man, someday, i have to straighten thigs out!!
 
Osier, i will not debase myself by doing rp's on hunting stool!! hehehhehhe
Smart aleck!
The back of the new shirts read--so many acarvers, so few decoy makers.
 
Osier, i will not debase myself by doing rp's on hunting stool!! hehehhehhe
Smart aleck!
The back of the new shirts read--so many acarvers, so few decoy makers.
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So true...

I was disappointed at the dearth of green ribbons displayed as well.

t
 
Somebody needs to order a 40yd dumpster and get a couple of high schoolers to straighten the place up in exchange for some carving lessons.

That shop has what you would call..........character.
 
Nice going George Buddy, I would call it a Musiem. HeHeHe.
take care and God Bless
Eddie.
Its all about Building that Bond.
 
I love these character shops. Reminds me of my folks shop that I grew up in. But then again, my Mom told me the other day they bought a 40'x10' SeaLand container to move their "treasures" into to free up the actual work areas. Thanks for sharing guys.

Mike
 
I did notice George goes through an awful lot of peanut butter!

The dungeon is definitely a fitting title. Alot of decoys have come out of that little space!
 
Dwane, some of those jars are oldies!
I have a penchant for scraping paint off the palette and using it as starter for the next batch---Bilol can attest to that!
That fan has been around since grad school! served me well at SIU!
 
Jim, if the place was totally cleaned, i would just have to start over, and i am not sure i have that many fun ye3ars left!!
Had a youngster spend some time last winter---Bob and i kinda got him gunning with us on the digs when he was in middle school---Dad was working full time with a bus company, and we had a ball with Josh.. Last winter, he called and asked if i would mentor him--college senior at this point---my only question was--what took you so long to decide?
He is now making stuff in his own shop--Trust me, it will eventually develop its own character!
 
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Bill. why did you leave out the picture of Curly's magic finger?

Come on, fella---Show that one, and give an explanation!!
Jim, early on, just aquatec---when using Wiley, i did not need sealer---Switched over to Golden about twenty years ago! Stuff has held up pretty well, and i have learned how to move it around a bit over the eons.
 
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but george asked me to post them. When I arrived in normal clothes, george ask me what i was painting in, I didn't realize painting was messy. So he lent me some clothes and didn't realize how colorful I was until I looked at the pics. As you can see by the shirt I am wearing, George is an environmentalist by saving trees and not using paper towels, he wipes excess paint on his clothes. George also feel brushes are optional, he calls this first pic "Curly's magic finger" after Jack Palance in city slickers. hence painting with george is messy.

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Finger painting, one of the little tricks I learned yesterday.

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