The Carver

Award-winning decoy carver, and National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow, Rich Smoker, can spend hours on end in his workshop. He chooses the material, paints, false eyes, brushes, axes, and carving tools, to make his truly lifelike bird and duck decoys.

But he must be inspired.

And so the views of wild birds from his workshop window are a welcome sight, as he spends his days shaping decoys the old way—by hand. This story was photographed for Garden & Gun Magazine.

Carved ducks inside Rich Smoker's workshop
Carved birds inside Rich Smoker's workshop
Rich Smoker in his workshop
Tools inside Rich Smoker's workshop
Rich Smoker in his workshop
Duck decoys in varying states of completion
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Rich Smoker in his workshop
False eyes inside Rich Smoker's workshop
False eyes inside Rich Smoker's workshop
Rich Smoker holds a wooden duck's head
Duck decoys in varying states of completion
Paint brushes inside Rich Smoker's workshop
Rich Smoker in his workshop
Rich Smoker in his workshop
Rich Smoker in his workshop
A completed, lifelike duck decoy
Duck decoys in varying states of completion
A carved and painted wooden bird
Carved and painted wooden birds
Rich Smoker in his workshop
Various wooden duck decoy heads sit in the window sill at Rich Smoker's workshop
Various wooden duck decoy heads sit in the window sill at Rich Smoker's workshop
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