red shank

This unusually colorful wood came from the place of a friend who had me out to work with him and visit this summer. The land is near Anza, California, East of Temecula. Red shank is one of the dominant native shrubs there, and some of the ones near the house of my friend Randy are quite large, which makes for good spoon wood. The trunk I selected was partly dead, so I figured it was more expendable than the more vigorous parts of the plant. Fortunately the dead wood added huge amounts of character and beauty to this spoon! Some large cracks remained when it was complete, and I filled them with red brick dust during the curing, hoping the cracks would close and seal the dust in as they cooled. The idea came from my recent experience with kolrosing. What was most surprising and remarkable to is the 'curly' quality of the wood revealed int he bowl once sanded. Like waves in the wood. Gives the wood a whole other dimension.

 

orange cooking spoon

While living at Collin's place, Hawk'in'eye Haven, I met a neighbor who hired me for some work on their land. The day I met Rick he was cutting some orange wood, and he said he would bring me a good section for making spoons. He commissioned one out of this wood for his mother Joan, who requested a long-handled spoon for stirring. The wood was delightful to carve and the spoon came out beautifully! I've decided to leave these serving spoons I'm doing these days unsanded, which we call knife finished. It is less work and is sufficient for a spoon that does not go in the mouth as often. If the knife can get the surface smoothe it will actually stay more smoothe with a knife finish than a sanded one.

 

alder serving spoon

 

While on Lopez Island before coming down to California I roughed out a couple blanks from willow and alder I'd gotten from a friend's place. While I was living with my friends at their lovely home in Valley Center I took some time to complete spoons from them. This alder serving spoon was much-needed in a kitchen without many of this size, and few wooden utensils overall. These friends Collin and Rivkah were very hospitable to me, and I was happy to make a contribution to their good life there.

I've been loving this spine ridge that has come into a few of the recent designs. It adds a sense of continuity as it extends the line from the neck, and reminds me of hand carved wooden canoes of olden times. The rings were close and the way the grain patterns showed up on this spoon was especially beautiful.

healer's mountain ash

 

This mountain ash is one I have pruned a couple of times over the years, and this time I harvested some wood large enough to make some spoons! The tree is by the road at a place where I lived on Lopez Island called Freedom Farm. The tree is split in two and the core of one side is completely rotted out, yet it lives and continues to produce fruit! Strong tree. 

This one stayed with me for a while and then a friend adopted it when I left it in her tiny home. Spoons find their people in different ways I guess. This one was meant for Kendra. 

autumn olive in winter

 

I carved this small spoon from autumn olive at the Little Winter Market held at Sunnyfield Farm while I was living there in 2019. My idea was to do spoon carving demonstrations each market and perhaps sell some spoons. With everything else going on I only managed to do this a couple times... 

The special thing about this spoon to me is it's simplicity and it's bright yellow color. 

generosity birch

 

This birch spoon I made from a chunk of wood I found in the pile at Sunnyfield is the first spoon I made using the hatchet given to me by Todd Twigg. He found it in a dumpster, and gave it to me at Lopez Winter Solstice 2019. As one of the fire tenders with my brother Lucas I was preparing the kindling by splitting cedar drift wood. The host of the gathering offered me the use of his axes and maul, but there was no hatchet, so this one was very needed. To thank him for his generosity I decided to give him the first spoon born of this hatchet. It has a larger bowl, which matches Todd's big heart. The shape is inspired by the horn spoons of the Haida people.

madrona medicine mini-ladle

 

One day at the farmer's market in Bellingham I was fondling the hand made slippers of my friend Berkana at her stand and she proposed a trade for one of my spoons! It was an instant YES! and the seed was planted for a very special project that ended up taking more than a year to complete. I tried to document the steps and include Berkana in the process along the way. Many of the images may be lost now... but here are the ones I have from the final stages, where I was finishing the carving of the handle and starting to define the neck of the spoon, where the head of the two-bodied, one-headed infinity snake goes up the back of the bowl.