At the end of 2023, I signed up for a relief carving course at ÚĽUV. Besides reliefs, we also carved some spoons, and people brought in all kinds of interesting types of wood. I even got a few pieces from them to use for my future spoons.
The
first spoon from the left is made of apricot wood. The wood is hard and it has beautiful colors and grain. This particular little log was so knotty
that I had a really hard time finding a piece with just a single knot,
which ended up right in the middle of the spoon... plus, right at the
very end, that black stripe showed up at the bottom of the
spoon. I’d take apricot wood again any day... just preferably not so
knotty next time :D
The spoon in the middle is made
of mulberry. The sapwood (the light part) kept tearing out, so it gave me quite a hard time. Luckily it turned out
to be easy to sand and it takes a silky smooth finish. And the heartwood has this gorgeous
iridescent shimmer depending on how the light hits it (it's called chatoyancy).
The little spoon is made of
grapevine. This wood is pretty much useless - it has
huge open pores, it's hard to carve, even harder to sand, and you can't
get the surface completely smooth. I only finished this spoon out of
sheer stubbornness, since I cut myself right at the start and didn't
want my blood spilled for nothing :D
Thanks, friends. It was definitely a challenge.
To wrap things up, here’s one little spoon made of cherry wood.
And in case you're wondering what kind of relief I carved during the course, here it is:
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