THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170231
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Back Bay Decoys is a big business camouflaged as a modest farmhouse on Princess Anne Road.
John Paxson and his family and friends - sawing, whittling and painting away, night and day - are creating carved wooden decoys that are sold in shops across the United States.
But you'd never know it to drive by. The business is in a rustic setting befitting a rural address. It wouldn't even be surprising if you saw Paxson outside carving away under the big oak tree, but you won't.
He's too busy to call his carving a hobby. Paxson's usually inside at the kitchen table carving his reproduction decoys, one after the other. His creations are modeled after birds carved earlier in the century by famous decoy makers.
For example, an original Dudley canvasback duck carved by Lee Dudley of Knotts Island, N.C., is so coveted by decoy collectors that it could sell for as much as $20,000 today. Paxson's reproductions sell for $200 or so, said Patricia Paxson, his daughter.
Paxson, a former metal worker, started carving full time in 1987 and sold his decoys in local shops within, maybe, a 100-mile radius. Patricia followed in his footsteps and began carving miniature decoys when she was 16. Her little reproduction ducks helped pay her bills through two years of Tidewater Community College, but the income wasn't really sufficient for the family.
``It was a great product, but it wasn't paying the bills,'' Patricia said.
When she and Jac Johnson, a former insurance broker and her high-school sweetheart, became engaged, he began carving decoys, too. Then Jac and Patricia took over the business side of Back Bay Decoys, and Paxson's decoy carving went big time. Now Back Bay Decoys brings in enough to support the three of them full time and several people part time.
The big break came when they entered their first juried folk art shows in 1992 here and in Williamsburg. They were noticed by a show promoter who produced wholesale shows. Jac and Patricia carried Back Bay Decoys creations to a couple of wholesale shows and orders took off.
Today, Back Bay Decoys are sold in antique shops and shops that specialize in country decor in 35 to 40 states. They are particularly proud that their reproduction ducks and geese are sold in the Museum of American Folk Art gift shop in New York City. Jac and Patricia also produced their first catalog in 1993 and continue to publish one each year.
``Now `short stuff' tells me what to do,'' Paxson said, looking at his daughter. ``I'm mighty proud of her.''
The business is a real family affair with other members of the Paxson and Johnson families helping out in busy times. For example, Paxson's son, Jonathan Paxson, carves his specialty, large white geese and swans. Johnson's mother, Betty Johnson, does the calligraphy for the antique-looking background information tags that hang around every decoy's neck.
The family turns out something like 100 decoys a week. The miniatures are done on something of an assembly line basis by Jac and Patricia. They use bodies, cut from a pattern by the band saw. They hand carve the heads and hand paint the bodies. The final product sells in the $15 range. Paxson's replicas take a lot more time and cost a lot more.
There's only one place to sit in the living room and that's on the sofa. Every other surface is covered with their wares. Large geese, along with a few loons, are on the floor. A scarecrow owl with two faces hangs from the ceiling, and shorebirds line the shelves. Ducks fill every nook and cranny.
``A roomful of decoys,'' Patricia said, ``but none for sale.'' That's the way the Paxsons like it.
P.S. Spring arrives tomorrow.
THE NORTH LANDING RIVER PRESERVE is the topic of the Virginia Beach Audubon Society meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Westminster Canterbury. Linda Lundquist, director of protection for the Virginia Nature Conservancy, will speak. The meeting is open to the public.
THE MID-ATLANTIC HOME AND GARDEN SHOW is from noon to 9 p.m Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday at Pavilion. Admission is $5 for adults; $4 for military and seniors; and free for children under 12. The show will feature more than 200 booths of home and garden products and talks by experts like horticulturist Andre Viette of Fishersville, who will speak at 2 and 6 p.m. Friday. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(@)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
When Patricia Paxson brought her fiance, Jac Johnson, left, into the
carving fold, it brought together two families to help run the decoy
business of her father, John Paxson. In the collection is this
curlew.
by CNB