Driftless Spoon Gathering

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I've been in the United States for about two months now, and am having a great time here. While my visa is being processed I am unable to work, so my time is currently being spent walking the dog and carving spoons.

Charlie helping with gardening

Silver maple ladle

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On Friday the 17th of July I quit my job at Keep Britain Tidy and on the Monday I flew to Madison, Wisconsin. The lead up to the move and the past month were both very busy, so there wasn't much time for carving. 

Near the Capitol building

Madison, Wisconsin

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I've just moved to Madison, Wisconsin. I've been here in the States for almost two weeks now, enjoying getting to know the city a little more.

Packing up my life from England was a little stressful, but I think I had my priorities right when deciding on what to bring!

I've also been quick to mark my territory in the cutlery drawer. 

Along with some of my own spoons there are spoons I own from some great craftspeople back on the other side of the Atlantic. Here's my collection laid out. Clockwise from the top we have a Barn the Spoon, a Jane Mickelborough, a Jojo Wood, a Sean Hellman, a Tom Standen, a Simon Hill, a Chris Allen and a Steve Tomlin.

I also shipped over a collection of some of my own spoons. Really looking forward to adding to these soon. 

Variations

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I opened up a cherry log. It really useful to make a couple of wooden wedges before starting the split. The wedges help split the log, and won't damage the axe if they come into contact.

I split the log into ten sections, ready to be turned into ten cooking spoons. 

By the end of the morning I had ten spoons roughed out. 

I used my adze to help speed up hollowing he bowls out. 

The twca cam also quickly removes wood from the bowl, and I find it easier to get a smooth finish.

I've got five pretty much finished, with a few minor refinements still needed. I am really surprised with the variation in colour between the spoons, especially as they're all from the same log. 

Oak burr

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I was digging through my wood pile and found some oak burrs that are about a year old. I'd completely forgotten about them. The swirling grain is amazing, so I thought I'd make as many tiny spoons out of it as I could. So far I've managed six.

Cherry off cuts

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I've been using a lot of cherry recently, and I'm really enjoying the colours that emerge from it. I wanted to do a small production run. I asked people that follow my Facebook and Instagram to pick from one of my designs and this is what they chose:  

Spoon carving video

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Spent some of my Easter weekend playing around with a video camera and iMovie. Hope you like it, if you do I might upload some instructional videos in the near future. 

Testing to Destruction

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For a while now I've wondered what stress a wooden spoon can take. I've had a spoon in my unfinished pile that I wasn't very happy with, so rather than making the small finishing touches, I thought I'd put heavier and heavier weights on it until it breaks!

Now this is a highly unscientific experiment, but a fun, illustrative one. I wasn't controlling for much, and the results are from a group size of one, but it did answer some questions for me.