GORDONVILLE AREA MAN LURED TO DECOYS

In addition to waterfowl, Schlegel has sculpted a number of other birds including woodpeckers, bluebirds and a bald eagle. In his hand is a large mallard drake.

Schlegel uses different carving manuals to ensure that his duckes are the proper scale.

The mixed hues of blue, black and green in the head of the mallard drake don't show it. The intent look of a redheaded woodpecker listening to an approaching noise does nothing to betray it.

Only Jerry Schlegel's own words could make you believe that the animals aren't real, but wooden sculptures. It is even harder to believe that they are not the work of some old European artisan but the product of a few short years' practice.

In the time since Schlegel carved his first duck, he's carved about 25 different wooden ducks, as well as woodpeckers and other birds.

Each bird is rendered nearly lifelike, so much so that it's hard to believe that until 1988, cabinetry and other basic building provided Schlegel with the only experience he had with wood.

Cabinet work is a talent to be admired but being able to take a formless chunk of wood and put anywhere from 50 to 200 hours of painstaking work into that chunk to transform it into a near-perfect greenwing teal -- well, that's an art.

Schlegel said he first became interested in carving ducks during, of all things, a golf game.

"I play golf with a friend of mine, Jerry, and I've been doing that for years now," he explained. "We were playing golf with another friend and I had no idea that Jerry carved ducks but on the golf course, he kept telling our friend that he had a duck in the car for him.

"He kept saying, 'I'll get your duck when we get to the car,'" said Schlegel, "and all I kept thinking was, 'What kind of duck does he have in the car.'

"Finally, when we were done playing, Jerry pulled a brown sack from his car and showed us this wooden duck he'd carved," said Schlegel, explaining that the sight sparked him to enroll in an introductory wood carving course taught by local artist Jerry Twaddell.

That was six years and many ducks later and Schlegel is looking forward to the cold and rainy Sunday afternoons of winter so he can hole up in the workshop and resume his hobby -- like waterfowl hunting, the sport from which duck carving was born, dreary winter days seem to lend themselves best to the art.

Schlegel's first carving was one of a greenwing teal, a small but very tedious bird to carve.

As time has gone on, he's progressed to larger, more detailed and more difficult birds.

Among the fowl that make their home in his living room showcase are two redheaded woodpeckers in a tree, one of which is poking its head and upper body from a knothole, several species of ducks, both male and female, and a bald eagle.

"I've never ruined a block of wood but I've come close a few times," Schlegel laughs.

It's hard to believe that his very lifelike sculptures get their start from a formless piece of balsawood but each highly-detailed duck begins as a square chunk.

Using pattern books, color photographs of ducks or other birds and his own knowledge, Schlegel traces the profile of a particular bird to the sides of the block, and a front and rear view as well.

Then, using a power band saw, he "roughs out" the chunk, approximating the shape of a wild fowl.

From there, Schlegel uses a portable electric motor and specially-designed carving bits powered by a flexible shaft to further rough out and approximate the intended result.

After the roughing process is completed, he continues to use power carving tools with finer and more intricate bits to begin shaping the beak, eye sockets and other detailed areas of the birds.

From this point, Schlegel may resort to any number of carving tools or a woodburning kit to give texture to feathers or the proper mouth opening or that "just right" curl to the curved tailfeathers of a mallard drake, bluebird or even a bald eagle.

In all, the birds may take between 40 to 50 hours -- the time required to complete a greenwing teal -- to as many as 200 hours for a lifesized mallard drake.

The artist believes the knowledge of wood and power tools that came from his other hobby, cabinet building and other furniture making, helped him become a proficient woodcarver very quickly; the artist didn't carve during the past two winters because he was completely finishing the inside of his new home. This task including constructing all of the oaken cabinets for the home's kitchen.

While woodworking gave him a jump start on carving, his experience at painting homes was of little help in painting ducks, many of which sport very intricate feather colorings.

"The only thing I'd painted up until the time I started carving was a room with a paint roller," Schlegel laughed. That is a far cry from creating the luminescent tri-colored head of a mallard drake but Schlegel put some Yankee persistence to work and the results are amazing.

While many carvers simply shape the head, neck, body and tailfeathers of a duck and then paint on the feather markings, Schlegel uses carving tools to imbed scalloped and textured feathers on each of his ducks. The same is true for woodpeckers, bluebirds and bald eagles, each of which receive treatment from a woodburning kit and carving tools to lend texture to their individual feathers.

"You see a lot of people who decorate with ducks in their homes and, of course, those ducks may not be as detailed as mine but I'm going for the type of work you could enter in competition," said Schlegel, explaining that while he does not enter his birds in carving shows, he aims for a level of authenticity which meets the stringent guidelines required of competitive artists.

These criteria include rules governing everything from feathers to the level at which the ducks ride in the water.

"The contests are vey competitive but I just do this for fun," he said.

Even still, Schlegel admits that the manner in which he carves is in marked contrast to the the carvings done by American Indians, who gave birth to the art.

"The Indians used to carve ducks to use in hunting," he explained. "Then, the white man began carving crude decoys. Eventually, I guess, someone said, 'Well, I'll try to make these more authentic,' and that's what I'm doing. I'm after the 'real' look."

Most of the finished carvings have found a home on the shelf in his living room while others have gone as gifts to family members. Schlegel said he would be eager to sell some of his carvings but has found that the price of handcarved ducks is sometimes more than many people in the area are willing to pay.

"I will sell them but I'm not out there actively looking for customers," he said. "Often, the expense drives people away when you have ducks selling anywhere from $500 to $1,000.

"I think there are a few Germans out there who are like me and can't see paying that price for a carving," he said.

That doesn't deter Schlegel, though. As the evenings get cooler and the weather gets rainier, he's looking forward to settling in to his workshop.