November 2025 • Nebraskaland 37
"Johnsgard pointed out my errors on the bird and said
another one should have won instead of mine."
While he laughs at the memory, it also set Don on a path
of gathering as much information as he could to become as
detailed as possible. He has continued to receive critiques of
his work, even if he never leaves the house.
"I'm red-green colorblind," Don said. "But my wife was an
art teacher, and my daughter is an art teacher. 'You're not
supposed to have green here,' is something they would say
to me, commenting about a particular bird I'm carving. Plus,
there are so many other resources."
He uses books, magazines and Tom Christie's YouTube
videos for tasks like determining feather size, shape and
position and paint color mixing. "You have to totally
understand the anatomy of the bird you're doing," he said, a
constant reminder for a veteran or novice carver.
N
A Brief Club History
"The painting is my satisfaction," said Ed Svoboda, carver
of this ruddy duck. "The goal is to get your work competing
with folks around the world."
Don Gabelhouse, a former fi sheries administrator with Game and Parks and a 55-year carver, continues to improve in his
carvings, including this drake green-winged teal. His most important carving tool is a pair of lighted magnifying glasses.
In the late 1960s, a group of folk art enthusiasts,
wildfowl hunters, artists — both amateur and
professional — biologists and game managers came
together to form a group interested in collecting duck
and goose decoys as well as carving working decoys.
The champion of the group was Lincoln accountant
Robert Wohlers, who hosted the fi rst meeting of the
club in January 1970.
Through the years, club members have competed
on a regional and national level and continued to
critique each other's work with the goal of keeping
this long-standing artistic tradition alive.
Now, 55 years later, the club welcomes those with
national competition aspirations, as well as others
who just want to see what decoy carving is all
about.
For more information on the club, including meeting
times, email Norm Wise at wcwau1945@gmail.com.
