broken handles made new

these two spoons are made from handles of other utensils that broke off. i left the rough break on one, but chose to carve it smooth on the other. the contrast between the old patina and the fresh wood where i carved is striking. the woods are unknown.

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i am very interested in further exploring NW native designs in my wood carving. the circle represents so many things: sun, moon, seed, awareness, the whole, the divine

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madrona

this one was so challenging and so much fun! it is made out of a piece of madrona, one of the most special trees of the san juan islands. this wood is very hard and likes to twist as it dries. the playful spirit of this wood and it's maker is represented in the design.

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yew

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these little spoons, perfect for scooping salt or spices,are made from little shards of the same branch. this piece of yew branch was being used by a friend of mine as a mallet and had begun to spit apart. i saw it and knew i could make some spoons out of it. soon after another friend challenged me to make the 'smallest spoon in the world' and i accepted the challenge. that was my first of this series. 

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this one i made from the core of this same yew branch. usually the diameter of a round branch must be slit to avoid splitting, but since this was already dry and stable i was able to pass through the core! something special about yew? maybe. the dark design is the layer of wood where it separated when used for pounding.

then this little beetle spoon i made from a piece i separated from the one above. isn't it cute!

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snowberry

this one is made from snowberry wood, which i never thought would be possible until i came across soem oldgrowth snowberry trunks in the burn pile at work. i saves a few pieces. the rotting of the wood added character and helped shape the spoon. i love the little black dot in the bowl.

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copper birch

this spoon is made from a slender branch of copper birch. i left a little of the beautiful inner bark, though sadly i could not keep the very beautiful, copper-colored outer layer.

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balancing spoon

something inspired me to do the fun little curve in this ocean spray spoon. it led to this wonderful detail on the neck... which i did not envision in the beginning. wonderful things often show up during the process of working with the wood and the evolution of the shapes and volumes. this one broke during carving and i thought it was lost, but i carefully glued it and the place it broke is barely noticeable. this one has the special ability to balance on it's side!

juniper

 this piece of wood i found on the side of the road one magical day while hitch-hiking on Orcas Island. i was harvesting hay to give to my friends and saw this beautifully weathered piece of a stick... with it's cracks i wasn't sure it would work out as a spoon. i just used a little wood glue to hold the biggest crack together. it is one of my favorite. spoons for it's wild, weathered beauty.

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maple

 this spoon is made from a piece of maple that came from the same job as provided the hazelnut wood. the shape where a branch intersected inspired the spout. the colors in the wood, blue-grey and purple, are from spalting in the wood, caused by fungus. magical.

i carved this from a green piece of maple. no spalting in green wood. you can see the rings of the wood when the light shines through. i love that. the harder woods can be safely carved this thin.

Douglas Fir

the smallest doug fir spoon so far. i gave this one to someone quite spoontaneously at a thanksgiving potluck. the spirit moves me sometimes.

this one i played with the curving handle and i left a little of the beautiful design of the bark beetle. SOLD

 this was my first fir branch stub spoon. it was given to the woman who's property the wood came from.

hazelnut

i made these two out of wood from a hazelnut tree that was pruned on the job where i was working. this wood has a wonderful light streaking to the across the grain. it was soft and pleasant to carve. i gave one of these to a friend in New Jersey and the other to my boss who gave me the wood.

first of many

these are the first couple spoons i made after returning from the Hoop Tour.  they are made out of Ocean Spray wood, which is a wonderful native plant that grows throughout the NW. the indigenous people of this area called it iron wood. it is very hard and this allows for finer detail while retaining strength. these were given to two of my woodcarving teachers, Walter Henderson and Aleph Geddis.

Hoop's first spoon

i began carving this spoon in a spoon carving workshop at the Wintercount Primitive Skills Conference near Phoenix in February 2012. i finished it as i continued traveling on this Hoop Tour that encircled the U.S. over the course of 15 months. it is made out of bass wood. the flat handle was designed to be used in spreading butter thickly on a slice of home-baked sourdough bread. i keep it as my travel spoon.