Ellen McCaleb is a fish carver and painter who recreates trophy fish decoys off of client photographs and measurements. Her work follows the wood carving traditions established in Europe during the 19th century.[1]
McCaleb works out of a farmhouse in New Hampshire using a band saw, two-handled drawknife, and two-handled spokeshave to shape the fish, before filing, sanding and rasping them. A five layer paint takes six weeks, and there is a 12-month order backlog for the sculptures that start at $110 per inch and were described in Forbes as being so beautiful "that your descendants will be gaffing one another to inherit them."[2]