Wonky Sweet Chestnut Spoon

This came from a naturally bent branch I came across in my local woodland. After splitting out the blank I decided that the handle should follow the flow of the grain.

Decorated Silver Birch Spoon

I don't tend to do much decoration on my spoon handles, but when I found out my friend Simon Hill would be teaching spoon decoration at Spoonfest in a couple of weeks, I thought it best to get some practice in! 

So practice doesn't make perfect?

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell popularised the idea that the mastery of a skill requires 10,000 hours of practice. This idea quickly spread, for it seemed logical. The more you do something, the better you become at it. Throw 10 years at something and you'll be at the top of your game.

Waste Less Live More Partner

Waste Less Live More is about rethinking how we live our lives in ways that reduce our environmental impact, whilst improving the health and happiness of ourselves and each other.

Plum Travel Spoons

Here are a couple of short handled eating spoons that have recently emerged from their linseed oil bath. They're loosely based on my rowan travel spoon.

Rowan travel spoon

The Flow of Spoon Carving

***This blog has moved to my new website. New posts will be made here***

What is 'Flow'?

At its most basic, flow is when we are in a state of optimal performance, completely immersed in the activity we are doing. Studies have found there are six factors that identify a ‘flow’ state:

1.    Intense and focused concentration on the present moment

2.    Merging of action and awareness

3.    A loss of reflective self-consciousness

4.    A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity

5.    A distortion of temporal experience

6.    Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience

Plum handle for a Mora knife

(And a sheath from an old shoe)