The Little
Place That Time Forgot
By Dr. Jeffry Metheny
One crisp, golden woods, blue sky morning
fifteen years ago this October we were cruising new territory along the
back roads of northwest Michigan in search of the ever elusive ruffed grouse.
The day had nothing whatsoever to do with ducks but for some reason it
lent itself to distraction. A simple sign along side the road read DECOYS.
We backed up, pulled into the drive and up to a log sided woodworking shop.
The heavy pine door stood open and in we went.
Along the shelves that lined the walls
sat gorgeous hand carved decoys. The mixture of species and styles was
obvious but what caught our eyes even more dramatically was the apparent
age of these wooden ducks and geese. They seemed to have been lifted out
of an aging Chesapeake Bay crab basket, a worn Illinois River grain sack,
or from the dusty attic of a Saginaw Bay area barn.
As we stood admiring and contemplating
the possibilities, the buzz of a band saw from the back room stopped suddenly
and out walked the maker. With a chin strap beard, bifocals pulled down,
and red suspenders pulled up over a white cotton shirt, Jack Teegarden
greeted us with a grin. Our initial impression was that we’d stumbled into
one of Santa’s outposts. This notion rapidly changed to a sense we had
entered a classroom and were interviewing a professor in his lab as he
discussed wood characteristics, design, sculpturing form, and color complimentarily.
Interspersed through his discourse he interjected quips and quotes from
Mark Twain, Earnest Hemmingway, and Garrison Keilor.
Walking outside 15 minutes later, we looked
at one another with eyes wide. A while back as teenagers we had been bitten
by the waterfowling bug and had tried to carve and paint decoys in our
basement. Despite the best efforts, our blocky decoys appeared rudimentary
folk art so we were very aware of the skill and craftsmanship involved.
You know he never did tell us how he makes them look so worn and old. Rather
he craftily diverted us with enthusiastic encouragement, a brochure, and
invited us to enroll in his carving class. What a great idea, to come,
spend time and learn the real way to carve a block of wood into a working
decoy to be used in the marsh or set on the mantel to conjure memories
of the past. That was then.
A name like Teegarden is one you don’t
forget even after 15 years, especially when the man shares the same passion
for water fowling and decoys that you do. When winter’s doldrums signaled
the rare, urgent need for an artistic outlet my thoughts drifted back.
Internet did her work and one phone call to Michigan later I was checking
my schedule to find the time.
Much had changed since we last talked.
Much remained the same. Jack had moved north and east; from the pinky finger
to the index finger tip ( Michiganders know what that means). He scaled
down his shop and sales but not his enthusiasm for the old and true, for
the beauty of form, the excitement of colors, and the deep desire to pass
on his skills and techniques to any who wish to learn. He enjoys and spends
more time now teaching others. Through his art he loves nothing more than
reviewing the past with his students. He quotes an old Dakota chief, "When
legends die, the dreams end. When dreams end, there is no more greatness."
After a 3 hour drive north from Lansing
through snow covered maple and spruce snowmobile country, Jack met me in
the lobby of my home for the next 5 days. Dusting snow from his trappers
cap, red scarf, thick green mackinaw, and Twain style mustache, he welcomed
me with a Keilor metaphor "to the little place that time forgot." The knotty
pine room of this 1940’s hotel fronting an expanse of frozen lake seemed
the perfect place to begin this journey. So while the snow continued to
float and the Carhartt covered fishermen focused on their tip ups out the
front window Jack introduced me to Waterfowl Carving Class 101.
He handed me a notebook filled with pages
of practical information and outlines that included duck anatomy and behavior
(so the non hunter/carver can later field questions about their study),
tools and equipment, and woods that best lend themselves to task and how
to process them prior to carving. There are critical sections on drawing
and designing from old decoys, photos, or out of your head.
Repeatedly he explained decoy making is
one third design, one third carving and shaping, and one third painting
and texturing and each part is just as important as the other. I had always
approached it with a give me the wood and blade and let me go and my previous
attempts looked accordingly. Jack, a Purdue graduate in biochemistry, immediately
put the science into art.
Next morning’s early drive to his workshop
proved just right to observe a flock of turkeys scratching their way through
a thick aspen swale and a pair of partridge sailing down the road. By the
time I arrived all tense thoughts of work and home evaporated into the
10 below air.
His red and white workshop was structurally
divided into two halves, one a well equipped wood shop with; band saw,
drill press, exhaust system and assortment of hand tools. The other half
held a library containing books shelves filled with classics on a host
of old style crafts. These were magical old books, not just on decoys but
also lumbering (Jack’s historical passion), snowshoes, dog sleds, totem
poles, and others. Most of them had been working textbooks he used to learn
and make unique items for himself or to teach and instruct students. He
relates his totem pole carving class at Delta College in Saginaw and how
proud he was of those students working so diligently on such intense projects
that may take upwards of 50 hours per foot to complete. Now that is patience!
Over a cup of coffee or tea each morning
we would discuss topics of common interest like world history, favorite
books or authors, local politics and of course questions about what we’d
previously learned or done with our project the preceding day. Often times
ideas would come to mind en route to and from his shop so this eye opening
review helped solidify areas of concern.
My project choice for the week happened
to be a design of Jack’s that can be best described as a pair of chunky,
high fore headed bluebills. My eye must go to the unusual since no one
had picked that pattern for 8 years. Canvas backs and wood ducks seem to
be favorites.
We spent the first day on design measurements
for Masonite head and body patterns then transposing to and cutting them
from blocks of cedar and white pine with a band saw. The joy of carving
came next using Teegarden’s own time tested zone specific carving system.
The same tools that the old time carvers used, the draw knife, spoke shave,
knife, file, and rasp fulfilled my hands on desire to create and somehow
connected me to the past and carvers of old. The pile of chips grew slowly.
He asked if I wished to try power tools. I declined. My past experience
was that although they cut through the wood faster, the down sides of noise,
saw dust flying, possibility of going too far real fast made up my mind.
After all I wanted to savor the lessons not rush the process. The teacher
was more than fine with that.
The head and body were sculptured and checked
with templates until almost complete. The fixation of head to body with
screws and glue was followed by focusing on those tough spots where the
head transitions to the bill and the neck to the body. A great deal of
attention and patience was then needed to design, draw and recess the pattern
lines for wings and feathers. These must be perfectly symmetrical and Jack
made me go over this again and again until I got it right. His experience
with students that called with questions and problems after they went home
almost always related to being sloppy with this aspect of their project.
Now we were ready to enter the third and final phase, color and texturing
which are Jack’s specialty.
Working as a Boy Scout leader and program
director for some 27 years he developed a sense of rhythm and repetition
that holds scouts or students attention and fosters retention. He has maintained
his organizational and lecturing skills especially when it came to the
painting and antiquing portion of the work. Thinking back now, his short
didactic lectures on measurement/design and color/painting that included
blackboard and poster board presentations remain high lights of the week.
He guided me through the selection of colors
and how to mix and match them. Previously my decoys got a coat of flat,
unexciting black, white, grey or brown. Imagine how it felt to paint that
drake’s head purple and then see it blend and tone down to a realistic
iridescence. Finally the secret Teegarden finishing touches were applied
and no doubt about it, this pair of bluebills looked like they’d spent
many a windy day swimming through spitting sleet drawing northern flocks
close to the blind.
Throughout the week Jack’s opinions and
philosophies filter through the process as he leads you on a journey to
create an old style art form, a thing of beauty, something your really
weren’t certain you could ever do. Students feel like they step back in
time and feel they were market gunners, decoy carvers or perhaps Boy Scouts.
Their hard work is applauded by the master as he finally bestows the A.
L. suffix to your name. It stands of course for Artist License.
For those of you who tie your own trout
flies, wrap fly rods, carve decoys, enjoy the feel of pine in your hands
or dream of an artistic challenge in a kick back, creative kind of way,
there’s a little place in northern Michigan…
If you would like to read another story
about this, check:
http://www.leelanau.com/nmj/views/teegarden.html
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