Charming Cherry

The only spoon I bought so far is from craft market in Kezmarok and it's made from cherry wood.

At first I thought it was dyed; wood can't have such color naturally, right? Only much later I learned that it can.

I ran out of my favorite plumwood supplies, so I searched a pile of wood in our garden to find something usable. I found an old trunk and when I cut it into logs, a nice pink wood showed up. No one could remember where the trunk came from, but we'd cut an old cherry tree a few years ago, so this was probably it.

I wanted to carve another spoon and I made a spoon blank with axe, saw and chisel. But later I found an insect hole just where the bottom of the spoon bowl should be. And it was not the only dirty trick that this piece of wood prepared for me: there were hidden knots and a few cracks as well. So I carved a cooking spoon instead to avoid them.

Cherry wood is softer than apple or plum wood. It made the carving easier, so I carved the basic shape at one sitting. The inspiration came from a few cooking spoons from this article.

Interesting pattern and colors showed up after sealing, almost the same as on the spoon I bought before.