fig in thorn junction

when i was visiting some friends in thorn junction and working in their garden i found a piece of fig wood that just cried out to be made into a spoon. sometimes i just see the potential. this section of branch was in a compost bin where i was happily placing all the grass i pulled.
it had lots of rings, but i was told it was only a few years old. later i found out it had grown so many rings because it was in their greenhouse! the wood was soft, but stronger than i expected. i carved it in one sitting on a sunny morning. very rare for me to carve a spoon all at once like this! the sanding was done mostly during a song circle i attended that night with my host Jani. got all filled with good vibrations! i decided to give the spoon to the lovely couple who's tree the wood had come from. it is now honored to be used in their love-filled kitchen!

avocado season

this is actually the second avocado spoon i have carved, but the first one i was not able to get a picture of. it is a softer wood with a beautiful texture to the grain. i enjoy carving it dry. this piece i found laying around the trailer where i was living for about a month this spring. someone who came to help out for a week on the farm liked the olive spoon i had recently finished and asked if she could commission one for her parents. YES! when people get excited about these spoons i respond. the shape of the handle came about largely due to the irregular way it was broken and cracked. it was more of a shard, not the half-branch section i often work from. the paddle on the end was at first going to be some kind of spiral, like a curling leaf, but i decided to leave the inside of the curve intact for strength. it turned out it gives a wonderful eyeful of the grain on the flat surface and evokes the fruit of the tree it was made from, which i emphasized intentionally. i think it is elegant in kind of a sturdy way. thanks Liz for your encouragement!

sister's spoon

visiting my sister at her home on the lost coast i was able to finally get a picture of the tiny spoon i made for her years ago. she uses it as a salt spoon just about every day. what a special thing to be present that way in her life through something i made. this spoon is from the same piece of yew wood that i carved all those other ones out of. what a beautiful wood! thank you tree for living and giving your life! thanks to the Creator for making it all possible.

spalted olive

While staying with the Twelve Tribes community at Morning Star Ranch i carved a few more spoons. I was not able to get pictures of all of them. Here is the most recent one i finished as a gift for my new frind and 'brother to be' Charutz. It is made from one of the pieces of olive wood i got at Spreadwing Farm in the Capay Valley of Northern CA. I chose it for the spalting and boy did it prove beautiful! It is a hefty and dignified spoon for a strong and wise man.

white manzanita

while in Mt. Shasta i kept thinking i wanted to try carving a spoon out of the manzanita that is growing all over the place. it is hard to find a dry piece that has not split, so i had to go with a green section of branch. this little spoon has a graceful twist that evokes some of the spirit of the plant it came from. i like the two little dots that showed up in the bowl. this one i finished while in Reno.
_____given to the lovely Vanessa Marnewecke

olive from Spreadwing

when i was visiting a wonderful farm in the Capay Valley of California called Spreadwing, they suggested to me that i might harvest some spoon wood from a recently fallen and still green branch next to their barn. this little one was from a section of branch that was already dry and stable, which i often prefer to working with wet wood, because it is more stable and predictable. i started working on this spoon there at Spreadwing, worked on it while hitch-biking to Reno from Mt. Shasta, and finished it my first day in Reno when we went to Pyramid Lake.

lilac samara

this piece had a crack in the handle section that i worked around, leading to the shape of this samara, the twin maple seed.