still thinking about spoon carving
[a free-to-all post, just some thoughts about my recent return to spoon carving…with some links below]
Spoon carving. It swept up a huge following in the past 12 years or so. I wrote last week about my beginnings at this work. I started out slowly, then got a renewed focus around 2010 or so - I forget the exact timing. There was a forum, mostly British, where spoon carving was taking off. Robin Wood was the catalyst I think. I played along for a good stretch - then bang - about 3 years ago I just stopped cold. Maybe because of those cupboards I was making, maybe just an overall furniture-focus that bumped the spoon carving. There’s only so many hours in a day.
Doesn’t matter. When I carved those 4 or 5 spoons last week it all came flooding back easily. Those “grasps” that Wille & Jögge Sunqvist & Drew Langsner taught us are well-embedded.
I think learning how and where to cut sets you up for an experience that is very singular. I won’t say it’s unique, there are parallels in lots of woodworking operations. But for me, the absorption that spoon carving creates is more palpable than that I get from the furniture work; planing, carving or turning, etc.
When I think about planing good oak boards, many of the same considerations are present; aiming this stroke, following with that one, checking my progress, where to go next. Check it again. All of that happens in spoon carving - but the oak board is down on the bench, you have to tilt your head this way & that, pick it up now & then to check the progress.
Chairmaking is sort of in between. Shaving parts at the shaving horse is pretty methodical still. Face, edge, 2nd face, 2nd edge. Tapers. All pretty calculated. Riven stock still involves you more than sawn stock - so there’s some interplay between you, the edge tool and the wood fibers. Turning is maybe closer to the spoon carving idea - that spinning piece of wood’s shape emerging as the beveled edge cuts this way & that. Sculpting a Windsor chair seat is the closest I can think of to the spoon carving model. It’s all about shaping, beveling and blending one view into the next.
But the spoon carving hits you in a way that’s hard to describe. I don’t even like to talk about it, because it all sounds so stupid. But something really clicks when you’re involved in working on a spoon. I had forgotten about what it feels like to be immersed in the work that way. And I got to thinking it’s because you hold the spoon and the tools in your hands. Nothing in between you & the work.
Your hands instantly shift into the next position as your eyes see the next area of focus - watching the shape emerge. You don’t stop to think it through; you look, you gauge thicknesses with your fingertips and off you go. The shifts from one position to the next are so swift and immediate - it took me by surprise how easily I dropped back into that space.
Many years ago my mother-in-law was visiting and as we were all sitting in the kitchen, I got out my tools to carve some spoons while we were chatting. She looked at me and said “Oh, you’re getting out your knitting.” She’s a knitter, my wife’s a knitter. Our daughter Rose is a crochet-fiend. My friend Heather is a knitter. And that’s another aspect of spoon carving that sets it apart from furniture work. You can sit with friends and carve away and be social at the same time...if you’re inclined that way. Many woodworkers are solitary creatures, myself included. But winter’s coming on, the stove is lit in the shop. Maybe I’ll call Rick & Pret and have them come over and we’ll carve some more spoons we don’t need.
LINKS:
At some point, I’ll head southwest of here & carve while Heather knits. Or paints. The story behind the painting above: https://heatherneill.com/studio-blog/2019/07/16/night-philosopher/
Maureen and Rose have updated their etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaureensFiberArts
The knife grips I learned from the Sundqvists, etc are found in lots of places. One is Jogge’s videos with Morakniv https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoaPpRkFfg5WkjHrJZ02ooSH16nV2-TBU
and Jogge’s IG https://www.instagram.com/surolle/?hl=en
That was a fine post, Peter. Woodworking for me is a solitary task. The social aspect of spoon carving could be very attractive.
I think what you are experiencing is the flow state. Maybe a more focused, intense one with spoon carving comparing to furniture making.