Spoon carving – it’s a thing you can try! A really fun thing that apparently many people haven’t really even thought existed, let alone thought about trying.
Since we started a wood adventure I’ve been learning bits and pieces about different types of wood and tools and admiring Chris’ enthusiasm for learning from amazingly skilled designer/makers and over this last year designing and making some of his own beautifully fine furniture. I’ve been quietly intrigued by wood turning and also carving particularly of items used in a culinary setting such as turned bowls and carved spoons. I wasn’t even looking but when I stumbled upon a spoon carving workshop – it felt right!
Naturally as my parents were visiting from the UK the week it was on I floated the idea of all going and they (with blind trust) said sure sounds fun! Little did they know it involved axes and was actually two days – a little more than some casual whittling!
Our carving workshop was a few weeks ago now and our spoons are currently drying. It was amazing! We learnt every wood wrangling step from log to spoon! Having previously not trusted myself with sharp knives when chopping vegetables it was a step up using an axe for the first time but under the watchful eye of the Spoonsmith Jeff Donne we all took our branches and logs and found their inner spoon!
As you can see from the photos – we used not only axes but draw knives, spoon hooks, short and long knives and a Twca Can. You can also see why I say log… I had big ideas and my sights set on a big spoon of the serving variety – in retrospect there’s a really really slim chance I went a little too big but hey, it depends on how you look at it (i.e. from what distance) and how hungry the people are you’re serving?! I love my spoon nevertheless and it will be forever my first hand carved wooden spoon. There’s some up-skilling and refining to do and certainly some practice to be had but watch this space – this may be my first but is certainly not my last spoon!
Special mention to my mum and dad (who carved two!) who did an outstanding job with their spoons as you can see from our family of spoons above.
My review… I have asked for an axe for Christmas, have a spoon knife on order and am eyeing up various branches with a serious intent to find their inner spoon!
a wood adventure 