alder rice paddle?

I made a special friend who showed an interest in learning to carve while at Imagine Festival on Orcas Island. A huge alder tree fell right next to her tent the night after I met her. We harvested a branch from it and split a knot-free section with a nice curve. I took the inside curve, giving her the more desirable half for a spoon. I began carving my half while it was green, and kept it slowly drying while I got around to finishing it. I was amazed at how it worked out to use the bark as the rim of the bowl. I had never thought of doing this before. When I later showed this creation to my carving friends Walter and Garth they each made one in this style themselves!

This one has not yet found a home...

Soon after it was finished I met this man on the ferry from Orcas to Lopez Island and I asked him if I could take a picture of him with it. He wanted to show his deformed hand as well as modeling the spoon.

spruce for bruce

I met this guy named Bruce, with the nic name Spruce, at Imagine Festival who encouraged me to go to the Cascadia Skillshare and Barter Faire. He seemed like a real mover and shaker, full of real life spirit. I had this beautiful spruce from the mountains I had just been enjoying in Eastern Washington, and I decided to make him a spoon from it.I had hoped to finish it in time to present at the Skillshare, but completed it a little while later. The handle took on this look of traditional Northwest Native canoe paddles.

Wise Cedar

When I had a chance to meet Charles Eisenstein at Imagine Festival of Orcas Island this year I knew I had to make him a spoon. But what wood to use? That is often one of the hardest parts of the spoon making process: choosing the right piece of wood.

Before Imagine I stayed at my brother Learner's place and slept in a hammock supported by and sheltered by cedar trees. They made a little room between them that had a nice floor of their debris. As a gift to my brother I cleaned up the place a little, pulling the trailing blackberry vines, raking, and removing a few dead, low-hanging cedar branches. One of these branches called out to me to be made into a spoon. It seemed fitting for Charles somehow. One part that matched up is that he has been recently living at the farm of his brother, helping out during the days and working on his book in the evenings. A life of family and service is important to both of us, and this piece of wood was closely connected now to that story.

I left some of the bug-scribed outer wood on the spoon to show more of it's character.

Charles and I didn't find a chance to talk at Imagine, but I did give him a hug. He is smaller than I'd thought he was. When I gave the spoon to him it was in a song circle. We had just sung a song about giving gifts, and I felt it was the right time to present this one. I told him where I'd gotten the wood. He said thank you and that he would use it! It feels my gift to be received by someone I hold in such high regard.

larch for a maiden

The wood for this spoon came from the fishing pole that my teacher Lynx Vilden cut while we were up in the mountains after the period of training I did with her in August. This larch tree, though the size of a sapling of a few years growing at lower elevations, was many years old. She was going to leave it up at the lake, and I decided to use it as a walking stick on the way back down. I didn't need the whole length for the walking stick, so once I got home I cut the thicker end off. Just enough length for a small spoon. I had wanted to see what this wood was like for carving, but had not felt to take from the trees along my way. What I need is often provided by God through my friends in this way!

After a time of waiting to see who this spoon would be for, I met someone on Lopez Island who it seemed to fit. Maggie became a very important part of my life and I am so glad I could give her this token of my wonder at the beauty of life and the providence of connection.

aged manzanita

I got some pieces of manzanita wood from my brother in law Galen in Humboldt. This is the first chunk I have carved into a spoon. It came out so beautifully dark. I was working on it during the drive out with Rain to a primitive skills immersion we were attending. I heard in my soul that it was to be given to them. I finished it during the first week there together and presented it when Rain dropped me off back in Seattle where the whole adventure had started.