redwood snail

I was given a piece of redwood by my friend Joseph while visiting my sister in Humboldt a couple years ago. From the same piece of wood I made a spoon for Joseph and for Infinite Link (pictures forthcoming).

I sent out a notice on Facebook at that time to see if anyone would like me to make them a spoon. I got two responses, and one of them was from my old friend Nuria. She was moving to a new house and needed a new tea scooping spoon. When I asked her whether she had any particular ideas for a spoon design she mentioned some woods, but otherwise left it completely up to me. I felt it out and landed on using this piece of redwood that had a big, unusual knob on one end. For some reason I had cut the blank this way... I saw a snail in it and began the rough shaping.

It is ironic how this project stalled for so long, finally being completed more than a year and a half after starting. It was my slowest process ever. Sometimes I am just waiting for the right energy or inspiration that will push me through the challenging hurdle in the design. The shell was confounding me, but then while I was staying with this community in Raymond recently I found the right peaceful, supportive atmosphere in which to approach it. It was like a floodgate opening!

When my father saw this spoon finished it might be my masterpiece. I give all the credit to the brilliant one who created me and fills me with life and the power to create. I am amazed!

Camp Spatula

I had been wanting to make a spatula for a while. My friend Nathan had recently finished one that was pretty styling and I wanted to see what would come through my hands. So when this woman Anna I met at the Orcas ferry landing asked me to make her a camp spatula I knew it was destiny! Soon after putting the wish out there to find the perfect piece of wood for it, my mother brought along a huge trunk of Lilac she had gotten from a job recently. At the base it was just wide enough for this small spatula! Perfect!

The blank was roughed out with a hatchet at my teacher Walter Henderson's community wood shop. I have been practicing roughing out blanks with a hatchet more lately. I want to get a good hewing hatchet of my own, but any sharp hatchet or ax will do in a pinch. The shop has a couple really nice ones. In roughing out the handle end I saw the face of an animal and tried to bring out the spirit of a fox there. Nobody I asked saw a fox, but someone saw the doglike nose as I had. I suppose it could be whatever you see it as. I have been wanting to try carving a spoon handle in the design of the canoes used by people in the Salish Sea.

The design of this handle is largely inspired by this shape, and also just came along through happenstance.

This was a great pleasure to carve! I want to make more spatula!

pitch wood fir

When I was at Walter Henderson's community wood shop the other day I found a piece of firewood that was full of pitch. I felt like making it into a spoon, and this is what came through. I almost completed it in that first day. Lots of fun! I gave it to Maggie Clogston to help with her kitchen magic.