Making Decoys

Grayson Chesser, coauthor of Making Decoys: The Century Old Way, graduated from Old Dominion University with a BS in business administration in 1970. He carves decoys and runs Holden Creek Gun Club with his wife Dawn. He has written articles on decoys and hunting for American Hunter, Decoy Magazine, and the Ward Foundation. In 2003 the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities named Grayson a Virginia Master Folk Artist. He was chosen as Honorary Chairman of the Havre de Grace Decoy Show and served as Artist of the Year for numerous Ducks Unlimited chapters. His work has been shown in many museums and is in some of the country’s finest decoy collections. Grayson has taught carving classes for the Ward Foundation and the Eastern Shore Community College. Curtis J. Badger is the coauthor of more than thirty books on wildlife art and the natural history of the Atlantic coast, including Making Decoys: The Century Old Way, Virginia’s Wild Side, Salt Tide: Cycles and Current of Life Along the Coast, and Bellevue Farm. His most recent is The Wild Coast. He lives with his family on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.