Charles "Chuck" Danner

Chuck is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and worked for the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before retiring in Jan, 2003. He began carving birds in 1982. His interest in birds and creating them in wood originates from his life-long interest in wildlife. That interest manifested first in Boy Scouting, as a youngster, and culminated in his career in wildlife conservation. The name "Black Cat Carvings" comes from two black tomcats that shared his garage workshop for the several years. Would you like to meet them? Would you like to meet all the family cats? Would you like to know more about Chuck.

Chuck's projects were primarily waterfowl in traditional "decoy" poses at first. While he still carves ducks in this manner, mostly miniatures, his interests have broadened to include birds-of-prey, game birds, and song birds.

He has carved in both tupelo and basswood, and has carved over 200 birds since he began in 1982. His carvings are in private collections in at least three countries and in over 20 different states in the USA. He has provided some of his own patterns here for your use.

For your enjoyment, a selection of some of his previous projects may be seen in the Black Cat Carving Galleries:

Chuck use to do a lot of nature photography. Some of his images are available here for your enjoyment.

His brother, Dennis, also carves, as well as sculpts in various media. He was formally a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, but left there several years back to pursue art full time. Visit Dennis' online wildlife art gallery Danner Studios

Charles R. Danner Webmaster, carver, cat enthusiast E-mail at crdanner@charlesdanner.com