That eye problem was an issue at first for me and took some time to solve. The eyes have to cure awhile and I don't put anything behind the eye like clay or apoxie sculpt that might cause that kind of separation. You can also bake the enamel paint on the eyes, something like 200 degrees, don't know how much time. something I saw on youtube. A lot of the issue though was putting anything behind the eye. I have slots that are cut at a prescribed depth so I only have to place a small quarter inch ball of apoxie sculpt over an eye and smooth it out, then define the eye ball area with a pencil to scrape away excess and a wet paint brush to clear the glass.
I still have to clear the eyes again after Caleb paints them, I do that with a small exacto, the nice thing about glass is it doesn't scratch like the acrylic eyes. I got the idea for using the cabochons from an order of clear eyes from schoepfors, they looked identical, but needed a black pupil. One reason I paint my own is things like ringers that you either have the choice of yellow or orange, I like a yellow with a hint of orange. Same with oldsquaw, it's either too dark or too light of a brown unless I spend $10 for a fancy eye. My glass eye bill would be about $500 a month for the number of decoys we make, right now it's $10 for 100 decoys. Of course I still have to paint them, so maybe I need to add that charge. I've had a bunch of cull eyes that I just wasn't satisfied with the color or the roundness of the pupil, so I thought simple, just put them in a small bottle of lacquer thinner, but that didn't work, didn't get the paint off.
I even know a guy, (William) that paints the pupil of his eyes purple, kind of a trademark. Though the remark I hate the most, "the ducks don't care", certainly applies, but we do this stuff for fun.
You do a fabulous job on specks, seriously the best.
It's a very narrow road for those of us who make foam decoys, even more so carved foam decoys. It's a narrow road for people who understand flocking and its durability compared to paint and its effectiveness in the field.
I'm happy to hear about the scotch guard, I knew it enhanced the color of flocked decoys, I was just concerned if it would make repainting difficult. I've used it after your recommendation on the other forum, but have never repainted or re flocked any of them. I think that might be a good tip for people who own flocked decoys, not to mention the water shedding feature that could certainly be a help with glare and frost.
I've noticed that some of the new commercial china made decoys have a different flocking. It's basically a powder over paint instead of fibers. I don't even think it is truly flocking and don't think it will have either any durability or effectiveness. Job security I guess.
Are you still carving foamers? saw you working on a swan in the last year.
