I was sitting in my shop the other night , and got to thinking how great the last few years have been in my callmaking career.
I started making wingbone calls when I was 14 years old. 20 years later, I have grown out of a shoebox that included a few dried out domestic turkey bones, a pocket knife, a section of metal clothes hanger, a spool of thread, a couple of sharpie markers, some white elmers glue and some cotton balls to a really fantastic shop with some pretty amazing tooling.
When I first started, I just wanted a call that would work, and I had no intentions of making anymore after that. Well I got into decorating them , and just couldn't stop. I'm guessing I made 50-60 calls before I got into other things like driving, girls etc..... I made a handfull in that time, but there were funner things going on.
In 2004 My wife got pregnant with our first girl, so I decided to set up a really makeshift jewlery shop in the corner of our basement, and hand carve wax jewelry models to make some extra money at home. I literally carved 3 or 4 waxes at home before doing work after work wasn't very inspiring.
I can remember taking a break from my work and looking around stretching my neck and spotting my old "shoebox" in the far corner of the basement. I grabbed that little box, brushed all of the wax carving tools off of my jewelry bench, put all of the contents of that box on the bench top, and never looked back.
The reason I mentioned this chain of events is that callmaking for me has always been an artistic escape.
I absolutely love making jewelry for a living, and look forward to going to work everyday. I do know that when I go to work, I have specific jobs to do, and follow the instructions on the job ticket.
I always know that when I go home, I have a work bench in my basement that I can "escape" to and let my mind and my materials go in any direction.
Over the last few years I have been blessed to have made a lot of friends and customers in the callmaking community. The amount of support for me and my work has been more amazing than anything I could have dreamed of just a handful of years ago.
Anyone who knows me can tell you that what I love most about making calls is making the absolute best call I can possibly make,ascetically and in the sound quality .
I sometimes drive myself crazy because I want every detail to be as spot on perfect as my eyes,ears and my hands can make it. I don't work this way because I have anything to prove , it's because that is the very part I love.
