I organized a spoon carving course for a couple of friends. We worked with willow, alder and cherry wood. First we were training the basic knife cuts and then we carved our spoons in 1 day. And here is the result (one more unfinished spoon is missing on the picture):
Finally, I managed to finish the spoon from acacia wood that I mentioned here. I made two other spoons from this wood previously, but those were from an acacia branch which wasn't all that hard. But this was a piece of heartwood, heavy and rock-hard. The spoon has been lying around in various stages of unfinished for more than a year. I'd work on it now and than, only to leave it aside again. Plus, I couldn't decide on the right shape. In the end I somehow managed to finish it.
After sanding, I put the spoon in the oven to dry, but I accidentally left the oven set to 200 degrees Celsius :) Luckily, it didn't harm the spoon, just the orange stripes turned a bit more pink and purple.
I also wanted to try inlaying with brass wire, but I'll get to that another time :)
I have some new spoons from interesting wood: the striped one is American sumac, the light one is dog rose. The second photo shows the spoons when they were unfinished.
I added the dog rose spoon to a set of two matching ones.
I also have some new pieces in my wood stash: right to left some more sumac (from a broken tree near my appartment), russian silverberry (from clearing some self-sown trees), and one white piece of wood I brought back from my vacation, probably prunus lusitanica.
In January I finished the second spoon from cornel wood, which is very dense and tough. The spoon quickly found its way to Oksana, my original sponsor of cornel wood. I still have two smaller pieces left for more little spoons.
Below is the hornbeam spoon next to an unfinished acacia spoon I’ve been working on for a few months now. As soon as I successfully sand it, I will write more about the wood.
Last year I found a piece of broken aspen in a forest. Here is the spoon I made from it. The wood is light and easy to work with, but also strong. The kolrosing pattern is filled with a natural red ochre pigment. I was inspired by Maryanne McGinn's amazing work.
Last year I got to explore a fascinating part of Provence. My favorite spot was the ochre quarries in Luberon. I bought some ochre pigment there and I planned to use it for coloring spoons.
I spent a long time thinking about the design and I finally went with the Roman shields pattern from the triumphal arch in Orange.
And here’s the result - a spoon made from alder wood. Cedar would have been more thematically fitting, but unfortunately, I didn’t come across any random cedar logs lying around in France. I still have two more shades of pigment, so maybe I’ll make a few more spoons like this someday.
After the big floods last September, I obtained a piece of elm wood. It looked interesting at first glance and it also has a nice color.
Up until now, I’ve sorted wood into two categories: “Better to sand” and “Better not to sand.” But elm doesn’t fit into either.
The surface stays annoyingly rough after carving, even with a super sharp blade. Sanding took forever and the surface never got completely smooth. Maybe that’s the reason why I've never heard about anything made from elm wood.
So now I have a brand new category for elm: “Better not to use” :)
