Spotlight
Arlen was chosen for his many years dedicated to the art and craft of the Fish Decoy. Always with quality and passing on his knowledge by teaching others and making a film for television on making fish decoys.
Website: www.arlensvare.com
Email: arlen@arlensvare.com
Arlen was born in 1929 in Minnesota. He started darkhouse decoy fishing when he was 12 years old and after becoming disappointed with commercial plastic fish decoys started making his own and he is still making them today in 2005.
Excerpt from Arlen’s website at www.arlensvare.com
“Some years ago people began asking me to make fish decoys for their use, and that developed into a demand for decoys with my signature upon them. I was surprised, one day, to be shown that I was listed in Kimball’s “Fish Decoy” book, Volume III, page ll4 (name misspelled). I am also listed in the Don Peterson, Ph.D., book, “Fish Decoy Makers Past and Present”
Today you will find my decoys on two prints and they also are to be found nationwide. I have several decoys in the “Decoy Museum” at Havre d’Grace, Maryland. Among the awards for decoy making, the most recent is an “Honorable Mention” for a Northern Pike decoy submitted to the Greater Michigan Decoy Show, last September, 2000. Each winter I teach classes for fish carving and fish decoy making at our local Community Education Program. My shop was invaded, one time, by a television crew to record my making of a fish decoy from start to finish, and that program is often shown on Channel 3 in our area of the state. The fish is an amazing creation, sublimely fashioned to live in an element entirely foreign to you and me. I enjoy sharing my appreciation of this fascinating creature with others. Arlen Svare