Anthony is from Kentucky and he got started carving FISH in 2009. Before that he carved duck decoys and shorebirds ant he thought fish would be fun. He grew up in Northern Indiana and he had heard of pike spearing before but admits he has never done it himself.
He carves a wide variety of fish decoys, most are traditional style with minimal detail and no burned scale detail. Just simple paint jobs.
He does try to paint them as life like as possible they are stylized to some extent. He loves carving critters and many of his decoys are carved from found wood, recycled from other projects or construction sites.
Anthony weighs them with lead shot as it allows him to fine tune the swimming action better. He decoys are first sealed with shellac then primed with acrylic gesso and then painted with artist quality acrylic paint using a variety of techniques to get he look he wants – raggin, stippling, dry brushing etc.
The eyes are usually painted on the flat surface of the decoy although he does use hand formed wooden eyes in some cases. Once the paint job is to his liking he allows the acrylic to cure for several days and then he signs the decoy with his maker’s mark “ABT” and numbers it. The last step is to seal the decoy with a water based fishing lure epoxy coat.
Anthony belongs to GLFDA and he won the 2010 FLFDA World Championship with a Blue Ribbon in Folk Art Critters and a Red Ribbon in the Traditional Bass class.
To contact him: duckcarver@bellsouth.net
or
visit his site at
www.woodducksandmore.etsy.com
Pictures provided by Anthony Trimboli 1/29/12