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

I had found the Driftless Folk School online and noticed that they had a monthly spoon circle in a town about 90 minutes north of Madison. I wasn't able to attend any of those, but last weekend was their annual Spoon Gathering, two days of spoon carving in La Farge, WI. 

Through my Instagram account, I was contacted by a fellow spoon carver in Madison. Derek was also planning on attending the Spoon Gathering and offered to drive me up there. It was great to connect with someone also interested in carving spoons that lived locally. 

At the event I was asked to give some talks on knife basics and on axe work. It was great to be able to help out and a lot of fun to teach carving again. 

Photo credit: Driftless Folk School

The gathering included quite a few people who either lived in Madison, or close by. It was fantastic to find out that this corner of the United States has so many people that like the strangely specific craft that I do.

As a result of meeting so many spoon carvers Derek and I decided to setup a group for Madison spoon carvers to meet up and carve spoons together. Thus the Madison Chop and Chat was born. We had our first carving session together last night. I hosted the event, and five fellow carvers decided to spend their Thursday evening in my screened-in porch slicing wood and shooting the breeze. 

Here are a few of the cooking spoons I was working on: