April Fool's Day vs. Xmas

Troy Fields

Well-known member
I first met Steve Sanford in Dec of 2014 when he and his friend Mark came out to sea duck with me. We spent two mornings on the water together, moments of shooting, laughing and just enjoying the sights. Now I'm not sure if two days qualifies me to call Steve a friend...but it does qualify me to call him, or in this case, reach out to ask a favor. As some may know, I recently picked up a dozen LL Bean eider cork decoys. I kept one pair original and I decided to have the others repainted by people I have shared moments on the water with. The tradition will be to hunt the line annually so that these working decoys will remain as they were meant to be. As you can probably guess by now, Steve was one of the people I asked to paint a pair for me. My only request was that he not mimic the LL Bean lines, I wanted his style of painting, as did I request that of the other people I asked.

Well today they arrived (so it feels more like Christmas than April Fool's Day)....and they are just as I had hoped for...BEAUTIFUL and ORIGINAL

Here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy.

And Thank you again Steve!


Troy



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Good morning, Troy~


I am glad to see they arrived safely - and that they are now once again among their brothers and sisters. I hope they serve you well - and for many seasons to come.


All the best,


SJS

 
Troy, I sure agree with you regarding receiving an early Christmas gift in the mail. You sure did! In the meantime, visions of sugar plums until your season opens. They are beautiful and I will bet stand up to the test of time.
Al
 
Beautiful stool Troy. Who made the big eiders...Mueller or Brettell ? I'm guessing Mueller

Best
Bob
 
Hi Bob,

Steve Brettell carved the two in the back center of the group photos, the ones closest to the framed eider print. The large ones are E-Allen that Rick Lubenesky painted. It's almost time for a bigger table!
 
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