Wanting a decoy to match her home's décor, Laurel Dabbs decided to take a class and make it herself rather than look endlessly for the perfect decoy. Along the way, she discovered making decoys was something she positively loved doing, and the first summer she learned to carve, she was hired by a living history museum as their resident decoy carver. Throughout the summer, she perfected her skills while learning the craft from older, traditional carvers. In 1999, Laurel and her husband Ben of Abacus Consulting moved to Westfield Center where she founded Laurel Dabbs Decoys and Folk Art and has earned worldwide recognition for her talents. We visited with Laurel recently, and listened as she told of her business's offerings;

Laurel Dabbs Decoys and Folk Art offers traditional hand-carved decoys used for gunning, hunting, and as art displayed throughout the home. Each is an original, one-of-a-kind piece comprised of multiple parts and hollowed out with weights inside to enable it to float and bob realistically. All of my decoys are hand-made from rot resistant Atlantic white cedar, and are finished in natural colors with exterior house paint to preserve the wood.

Decoys were never meant to be an art form, rather they were tools to be used much like a fishing pole, boat, or gun. Before 1913, it was legal to shoot shorebirds until the Audubon Society began to champion conservation of migratory water fowl. Around the 1930s, they came to be recognized as an art form in their own right.

I like to think that I do more than provide traditional decoys to my customers. I feel like I am providing a link to skills and an art form from the past that not many people see today. Many people remember seeing their grandfathers and uncles carving wooden objects in their shops or their homes, and by demonstrating my art for school groups and at living history events, I enable people to see how things used to be created in the days before everything was done by machine.

I also love to teach decoy carving. I feel that when I have taught someone this art, I've left a piece of history with them. I do sell my work, but I also work toward expanding the art form and sharing it with as many other people as possible. I have won awards for my work, including the Harry V. Shourds Memorial Master Carving Award in 2002 at the Decoy and Gunning Show in Tuckerton, New Jersey, and I have shown my work at museums and heritage events throughout the United States. I was also selected by Early American Life Magazine as one of the top 200 craftsmen in America for 2005.

Laurel Dabbs' decoys, shorebirds, and songbirds are authentically hand-made, and will stand the test of time as did their predecessors of a century ago. Call Laurel Dabbs Decoys and Folk Art today, and don't forget to tell Laurel The Advocate sent you!

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