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.

little ocean spray

i began carving these two quite a while ago back on Lopez Island, then rediscovered them, half-finished in a bag somewhere, shortly before departing on this trip. i finished both when in mt. shasta. currently i only have a picture of one. this one was recently sold to a nice couple i met at my friend erik burke's art show in Reno. the other was given to a friend who lives in Dunsmuir, who should be sending me an image any day now...