Finally Finished

It took a long time but the batch of 8 spoons from the freezer is finally finished. The pictures show (left to right) 4x apple, willow, plum, hawthorn and walnut. You can see how much wood must be removed from the blank to the finished spoon and also how different types of wood change their colors after oiling.

This spoon is inspired by a shape traditionally used in Romania. I think the design could have been imported to our country during Vlach colonization. I wasn't able to find any traditional Slovak design yet because museums usually don't keep historical spoons.

This is a copy of another spoon found on instagram (I don't know the author's name):

This spoon is decorated with a simple ornament that has been widely used ever since drawing compasses were invented.

Although I don't usually do such things, I left a piece of roughly cleft wood on the handle here because it created an interesting pattern:

This spoon is from a bent willow branch. The chip carved handle is painted with natural iron oxide and sealed with beeswax. The design comes from Dave Cockcroft. I found that many non-toxic dyes can be ordered online as additives for making homemade soap and cosmetics.

Plumwood usually has interesting colors whether it is freshly cut, dry or polished and oiled. This piece of plumwood originally had a very dull grayish-pink color but it changed dramatically after oiling. The spoon ended up with rather short handle because the wood was split quite asymmetrically.

This is a spoon from hawthorn, very hard and beautiful wood. The brown parts will eventually become much darker.

The last spoon is from walnut sapwood. At first I wanted to throw it away because the wood was gray and ugly, however now I'm glad I've changed my mind. The oil helped to improve the color again.