two commissions!

My superhero friend Lila Gaya helped me out by spreading the word via Facebook about the magic of souper spoons she has experienced firsthand. Through her sharing two people who know her contacted me and commissioned me to make spoons. It can take me a while to find the right wood and be ready to work on a particular project... but after a few months they finally came along!

The first one I completed is made of Alder that I found aging outdoors at Midnight's Farm near where I was living at the time on Lopez Island. The young girl who will receive it is wide-eyed like an owl so i incorporated that animal into the handle. This spoon is about 4 in. long. The star and heart represent love and truth.

The other one is made from wood I found at Midnight's Farm around the same time. It has a very interesting core pith in the branch. My friend who lives there said she thinks it is walnut, but I'm not too sure. The inner layer of bark stays green as it dries. Wonder if it will retain that color indefinitely.

cherry with a wart

I finished this spoon while on a trip to Vancouver, BC in early April. It is made from a native cherry wood I found at Freedom Farm, Lopez Island. It is about five inches long. it has been bought by a superhero i met at the Sunwise Coop house in Davis, CA!

Given to April in Davis, CA! Happy surprise meeting between superheroes!

trident spoons

these spoons were commissioned by someone very special who i met at Saskatoon Circle this past year. he says he is aspiring to the way of the hoop! he wants to immerse himself in primitive skills training, these old wise ways, in order to prepare himself for a life lived more simply and close to the earth.
he liked the idea of having a camping utensil with both spoon and fork in one. i think i'd seen one of these manufactured from bamboo. since the fork and spoon are not on the same end i have not been sure if i can call it a spork. i'd rather differentiate and call this a trident spoon. for now at least. maybe there is another name out there. the only other one that was offered was 'speek', from 'threek', the name given to three-tined forks.
in searching for others out there like it, i found this titanium version too. the design is very similar to what i came up with. minus the knife. graceful curves are my thing, with a couple of hard lines in there for contrast. i'm very happy with how these came out!
the wood, i believe, is African Mahogany. someone gave me some scraps from construction last year. these trident spoons are about five inches long.

wild cherry

i finished carving thos spoon recently while at the Saskatoon Circle primitive skills gathering in eastern washington. it was at another gathering in 2012 that i carved my first spoon...

this one is quite small and made from a wild cherry branch.

tiny wild rose

can't make a very big spoon from even an older wild rose cane. this is from the nootka rose, which is all over the place where i've been living.

given spontaneously to the lovely new superhero in my life

White Butterfly Woman!

twin spoons

many little pieces of exotic hardwood have come my way recently and i decided to try making a twin set by sawing a scrap exactly in half and sawing the initial cuts to the same dimensions. that gives me enough of a guide to fairly easily work them to the same shape. the second one takes a lot more careful matching to the first.
playful intuition guided me to decorate them with a heart and star. these can represent equanimity and awareness, which i am practicing finding a balance of in my path of liberation.
Given to my dear friends Liz and Teri of Lopez Island!

these are also the symbols in the logo that i made for souper spoons!

rose

i made two spoons out of rose on new year's eve coming into 2014. it was comforting to sand them super smooth and it brings out their beautiful grain!