Spoon Carver’s Blog
Often while I am carving, I want to tell someone about the spoon. How it takes on a character of it's own, or how a mistake became something beautiful. That is what this blog is for. Welcome!
Wedding Set
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
I was able to visit my family for a week at the end of last month. It was wonderful to be able to spend a bit of time with my Grammie for a few days. While I was there, my cousin in Japan requested a set of soup spoons to give as a wedding gift to his Japanese friends.
He said I could use which ever wood I would like so I chose Bird’s Eye Maple, Rosewood, Bloodwood, and Maple.
It wasn’t until I had oiled the spoons that I saw just how well the colours blended together. For whatever reason, white, red and black seem to be really nice colours for a marriage. The Bird’s Eye seems to pull them all together.
Tired but Satisfied Hands
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
I thoroughly enjoyed working on orders before Christmas. I had been working on Christmas type order since September and the last few weeks were especially busy. Below is a photo I took of the Soup Spoons I was working on before they were sanded.
Here they are finished:
From left to right the woods used are:
Maple, Cherry, Goncalo Alves, Bloodwood, Redheart, and Purpleheart.
I also worked on an order of 3 mixing spoons from Buckthorn wood that was sent to me from Minnesota. It has a few knots and I wasn’t able to get all three spoons big, but they did turn out very nicely.
More on Baby Spoons
Thursday, October 23, 2008
I am excited about these spoons! I’ve been taking a few more photos of them today so I can display them better in the galleries. Most of them are sold already, and a few of them are on display in the Spoon Gallery. The two that are left are on the Spoons for Sale page.
This is a photo of a gift I am sending to my girlfriend.
I have a love/hate relationship with this spoon. This is the one that I first thought was ugly with it’s streaks. It isn’t like the other Bird’s Eye Maple spoon I made which has beautiful rays. But the more I look at this spoon, the more I love it and find it beautiful and intriguing. It has risen to be one of my favorite of the baby spoons I made this past month.
Baby Spoon Mania!
Friday, October 17, 2008
During the month of September I had been working on an order for 3 baby spoons. The thing is, I had so much fun with it that I kept going…
The order was for three spoons. I have 7 baby spoons finished and three regular soup spoons. My plan is to give the commissioner an option of what three she would like, then I’ll put the others up for sale. Or give one or two away to girlfriends who have recently had babies.
Starting on the left is a spoon made of Redwood. This was my first time using Redwood, and I loved it! It is easy to use and has such a beautiful streaked grain. The spoon is on the shorter side, 5 inches long, but has a nice handle to hold.
Going clockwise is a Bird’s Eye Maple spoon. I received the wood from my old neighbour in Canada. It’s about 6 inches long.
Then comes a Purple heart spoon. I really enjoy the looks of this one. It’s also 6 inches long and has a nice curve at the end of the handle.
The fourth spoon from the left is made of Bloodwood, my current favorite for eating spoons. It has a zig-zag handle.
On the far right is another piece of Bird’s Eye Maple spoon. It’s a bit long than the other. It comes from some extra trim from my parents house. It is beautiful and ugly at the same time. There are a lot of light and dark streaks in it that I can’t help but love but it also looks ugly.
The bottom right is a Cherry spoon. I tried to make the handle a little fancier. I love how it turned out, especially as my first time carving a scroll shape. It isn’t as easy to hold as the other spoons, but after using it a few times, I’m sure it will come naturally.
The last spoon, on the bottom left is another Bloodwood spoon. It is also a short spoon, the shortest of the set. But it is the length of many baby spoons. The fat handle is nice to hold, and will be a good spoon for babies as they learn to navigate a spoon to their mouth.
Doing this project has definitely confirmed for me that I would love to specialize in spoons to eat with. I enjoy good solid working spoons to, but it is the spoons to eat with that delight me.
I may start to specialize some day, but at the moment I am working on an order for mixing spoons. I have two more orders to fill. One is for 6 soup spoons! The other is for 3 mixing spoons from a new wood. I am excited to see how they all turn out.
Danby Hardwoods
Friday, October 17, 2008
I finally had to push myself to find a local hardwood dealer. I have a project to make 3 mixing spoons similar to “Annelie’s Spoon” (in the Spoon Gallery) out of walnut wood. I have a quite a bit of walnut wood, but I know that it will be hard to get three spoons to look a like because the pieces are smaller and twisty. I left the project to the last minute possible, because I am shy about going to new places. But I had filled all my other orders, and it was time to see what I could find.
Oh boy! I wish I had not played shy and hunted earlier! After checking at the closest lumber yard that I could find, and confirming that they only sell soft woods for building, I drove out to Danby to see what kind of place “Danby Hardwoods” was.
They are better than I was hoping! It seems they have all the most used US hardwoods, as well as some exotic hardwoods that I have been using. They had a lot of walnut wood for me to sift through. I was even able to get a few pieces cheaper because there was a quite a bit of sap wood on the board.
I do not know the details, but I think the owners are craftsman who sell wood on the side. One makes beautifully turned bowls and the other makes beautiful tables out of a variety of woods.
I look forward to giving them my business in the future!
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