Blue Ridge Decorative Decoys
Blue Ridge Decorative Decoys
by Tony Bua
Self-taught artist Tony Bua didn’t begin carving until 1990, when he saw a carved decoy duck at a show. “I could do that,” he said, and he did – extremely well. By 1997, he began competing, and his exquisite carving of a goldeneye drake was a winner at a recent East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival.
Carving comes naturally to Bua. A first-generation Sicilian-American and the son of a stone mason, he’s worked with his hands all his life. He holds out his large, capable hands. “These are not connected to this (indicating his head). I just see things and I can tell how to make them.” He was stationed in Europe during his stint in the military, and he was fascinated by the way buildings were put together and by the carved faces and animals he saw everywhere. “I really appreciate everything people do,” he said. “Where do they get their ideas from?” Even at Disney World he was checking out the way things worked, rather than just enjoying the rides.
Bua carves all kinds of birds, fish, and even turtles. He starts with a block of soft tupelo or basswood, first roughing out basic profiles by machine—“Some carvers do everything by hand, but I’m good with machines, so that’s how I do it”—and then refining with knives and chisels. He draws on every individual feather and carves it in relief, burning in the barbs and quills in minute detail with the help of a hot knife and a magnifying glass. Sometimes he uses a softer technique called “stoning.” The final stage is painting with acrylics and, lastly, sealing. Bua also makes the “scenes” such as copper bulrushes or the carved “bark” a pileated woodpecker clings to. He never knows quite what he’s going to make each day as he climbs down the stairs to his “cave,” as his wife calls it. “I work from the heart,” he said. “I have to be in the right frame of mind, and what I make depends on how I feel. Sometimes I just know I’ll ruin anything I make, and I go play golf instead.”