Project Information
Well….. that was how I planned to 'sell' this one. With a built in USB memory stick I was going to load up digital copies of 150 of my spoons. That was the plan anyway. It did not quite work out like that due to some major ineptitude from the maker.
Yeah… it kind of looks good from a distance but upon closer inspection a story unravels. I had selected some of my prettiest woods to combine with this nice cabochon of jasper…. as I had sort of imagined this becoming a sort of 'portfolio spoon'. The color combination of the black ebony, Macassar ebony and bloodwood seemed to compliment the stone perfectly… and the silver sort of added a bit of bling.
Set to work on the thing and as I was fitting/refitting the stone in the ebony it dropped to the concrete floor… without breaking. I guess that didn't quite satisfy me because the next day I dropped it from a bit higher and this time things happened as they should and I found myself picking up the parts.
I had already pinned and epoxied the ebony to the handle… and had allowed no extra room outside of the inlay rout to fit a different stone….. not that I had any around. So, I was resigned to gluing the dang thing.
Onward and upward….. at least for a few moments…. until as I was shaping the handle I noticed a black dot appearing. I figured it was a spot of the black pigmented epoxy I used to make the joins… so I went about grinding it off. The dang spot kept getting bigger!
It was about that time when I remembered that I had also used a ribbed pin to strengthen the glue joint between the woods. The black 'dot' was where I had carved too deeply and run against the black epoxy filled bore hole.
After growling at the guy in charge I went about grinding down the pin and inlaid a small triangle from an old piano key to cleverly cover the mistake. A sort of Pee-Wee Herman move… "I meant to do that."
Composure regained…. only to discover that I had epoxied the business end of the USB in the handle instead of the bowl. So, instead of sticking out of the computer's side an inch and a half…. it sticks out seven or eight feet… or so it seems. This one made me lose my stead beyond what Pee-Wee could salve.
Now I have 151 spoons that aren't quite 'saleable'.
Actually, make that 152…. because the very next day I carved too deeply into the back of another spoon handle and exposed the epoxy. This time though…. I pulled to a dead stop and slapped a finish on. Notice the black dot in the second photo…. Thuya burl and Jackfruit
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The 'Vine Snake' in the 5th photo came about after I was doing an image search on Google. I was looking for a particular photo of a snake to show my wife and although I never found it, I did get caught up in looking at the 'Vine snakes'. Padauk… I think.
The last photo above is the 'Antelope' spoon…. Macassar ebony and bloodwood.
'Bird's Eye' is carved from Surinam Cherry….. a hard, dense wood but makes for a nice spoon. The 'eye' is a small knot… and I like working the natural features into the design when I can. Pretty heavy duty spoon.
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The 'Walnut Scoop Spoon' was supposed to be longer. The bowl originally turned inside out on itself…. but 'somebody' manage to carve a hole in the spoon bowl right where it went from over to under. The wood had a pretty grain and I did not want to trash it… so I foreshortened it into a sort of scoop.
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The grain is prettier on the back.
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'Sliced' is padauk (or maybe purple heart) with holly dividers. I just cut out a sort of squiggly handle but left the bowl square to use against the bandsaw fence. The spoon was just flipped from one side to the other, each time slicing a section off…. just sort of eyeballed it. I drilled holes in each section (eyeballed it again) and sandwiched holly in between. I had planned to use some picture hanging wire to run through the handle for added strength…. but couldn't find it… so I used thick soldering wire instead.
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'Mixed Emotions' is ebony and silver. I called it 'mixed emotions' because on one side the face is frowning and on the other is smiling. Same eyes, nose, lips and chin… but a different outlook.
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'Silver Belle' is from the same piece of ebony…. which had some really nice brown color. One of my collectors was celebrating her 51 wedding anniversary and her husband told her that he would buy her any spoon of mine she wanted. Well… she wanted one that wasn't made yet…. so I made it. Lots of silver dots.
She had liked the Black Dress spoon but I had mentioned in the Etsy listing that I intended to do one in ebony and so she urged me to get going.
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Back in high school one of my childhood friends used to draw these goofy, bucktooth cows and then write 'MOOF' on the page. They came down to visit for Thanksgiving and I showed him the spoon. He swears he has no recollection of drawing such a thing…. but I remember it so clearly. Anyway…. the idea being that Moof is what a bucktooth cow would say. Mahogany, bone and acrylics.
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The 'Bird'* spoon ….you would be hard pressed to identify the wood. Wanna give it a go? I tried using the little red tube from the can of spray lubricant (for the eyes).... with a silver wire in the middle. . . ended up looking a bit ragged.
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An attorney from San Francisco had previously purchased one of my hair sticks.. and when she saw the ebony and silver snake…. she asked me to make her a hair stick out of the same material. She said she would like for it to be a bit longer than the other stick she bought… but I didn't know if she meant the top part or the bottom part. So… I made one of each and she bought them both.
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I had this smaller piece of ebony or blackwood on hand so I made another similar hair stick for inventory.
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Another hair stick from dyed boxwood and a seashell.
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I'm working on 2 or 3 non-spoon items and can't say they are looking all that good. It will be nice to finish them though… and out of the way for whatever is next.
I just noticed during 'preview' that the formatting above is all messed up. I thought about going back and fixing it…... but that is as far as I got. Ho Ho Ho.
As always….. Thanks for having a look.
www.spoontaneous.com
Yeah… it kind of looks good from a distance but upon closer inspection a story unravels. I had selected some of my prettiest woods to combine with this nice cabochon of jasper…. as I had sort of imagined this becoming a sort of 'portfolio spoon'. The color combination of the black ebony, Macassar ebony and bloodwood seemed to compliment the stone perfectly… and the silver sort of added a bit of bling.
Set to work on the thing and as I was fitting/refitting the stone in the ebony it dropped to the concrete floor… without breaking. I guess that didn't quite satisfy me because the next day I dropped it from a bit higher and this time things happened as they should and I found myself picking up the parts.
I had already pinned and epoxied the ebony to the handle… and had allowed no extra room outside of the inlay rout to fit a different stone….. not that I had any around. So, I was resigned to gluing the dang thing.
Onward and upward….. at least for a few moments…. until as I was shaping the handle I noticed a black dot appearing. I figured it was a spot of the black pigmented epoxy I used to make the joins… so I went about grinding it off. The dang spot kept getting bigger!
It was about that time when I remembered that I had also used a ribbed pin to strengthen the glue joint between the woods. The black 'dot' was where I had carved too deeply and run against the black epoxy filled bore hole.
After growling at the guy in charge I went about grinding down the pin and inlaid a small triangle from an old piano key to cleverly cover the mistake. A sort of Pee-Wee Herman move… "I meant to do that."
Composure regained…. only to discover that I had epoxied the business end of the USB in the handle instead of the bowl. So, instead of sticking out of the computer's side an inch and a half…. it sticks out seven or eight feet… or so it seems. This one made me lose my stead beyond what Pee-Wee could salve.
Now I have 151 spoons that aren't quite 'saleable'.
Actually, make that 152…. because the very next day I carved too deeply into the back of another spoon handle and exposed the epoxy. This time though…. I pulled to a dead stop and slapped a finish on. Notice the black dot in the second photo…. Thuya burl and Jackfruit
The 'Vine Snake' in the 5th photo came about after I was doing an image search on Google. I was looking for a particular photo of a snake to show my wife and although I never found it, I did get caught up in looking at the 'Vine snakes'. Padauk… I think.
The last photo above is the 'Antelope' spoon…. Macassar ebony and bloodwood.
'Bird's Eye' is carved from Surinam Cherry….. a hard, dense wood but makes for a nice spoon. The 'eye' is a small knot… and I like working the natural features into the design when I can. Pretty heavy duty spoon.
- 'Bubinga Body' is of course… out of bubinga…. this piece being hard and brittle. I had to sand it all by hand, as the rotary sander just left it lumpy.
The 'Walnut Scoop Spoon' was supposed to be longer. The bowl originally turned inside out on itself…. but 'somebody' manage to carve a hole in the spoon bowl right where it went from over to under. The wood had a pretty grain and I did not want to trash it… so I foreshortened it into a sort of scoop.
The grain is prettier on the back.
'Sliced' is padauk (or maybe purple heart) with holly dividers. I just cut out a sort of squiggly handle but left the bowl square to use against the bandsaw fence. The spoon was just flipped from one side to the other, each time slicing a section off…. just sort of eyeballed it. I drilled holes in each section (eyeballed it again) and sandwiched holly in between. I had planned to use some picture hanging wire to run through the handle for added strength…. but couldn't find it… so I used thick soldering wire instead.
'Mixed Emotions' is ebony and silver. I called it 'mixed emotions' because on one side the face is frowning and on the other is smiling. Same eyes, nose, lips and chin… but a different outlook.
'Silver Belle' is from the same piece of ebony…. which had some really nice brown color. One of my collectors was celebrating her 51 wedding anniversary and her husband told her that he would buy her any spoon of mine she wanted. Well… she wanted one that wasn't made yet…. so I made it. Lots of silver dots.
She had liked the Black Dress spoon but I had mentioned in the Etsy listing that I intended to do one in ebony and so she urged me to get going.
Back in high school one of my childhood friends used to draw these goofy, bucktooth cows and then write 'MOOF' on the page. They came down to visit for Thanksgiving and I showed him the spoon. He swears he has no recollection of drawing such a thing…. but I remember it so clearly. Anyway…. the idea being that Moof is what a bucktooth cow would say. Mahogany, bone and acrylics.
The 'Bird'* spoon ….you would be hard pressed to identify the wood. Wanna give it a go? I tried using the little red tube from the can of spray lubricant (for the eyes).... with a silver wire in the middle. . . ended up looking a bit ragged.
An attorney from San Francisco had previously purchased one of my hair sticks.. and when she saw the ebony and silver snake…. she asked me to make her a hair stick out of the same material. She said she would like for it to be a bit longer than the other stick she bought… but I didn't know if she meant the top part or the bottom part. So… I made one of each and she bought them both.
I had this smaller piece of ebony or blackwood on hand so I made another similar hair stick for inventory.
Another hair stick from dyed boxwood and a seashell.
I'm working on 2 or 3 non-spoon items and can't say they are looking all that good. It will be nice to finish them though… and out of the way for whatever is next.
I just noticed during 'preview' that the formatting above is all messed up. I thought about going back and fixing it…... but that is as far as I got. Ho Ho Ho.
As always….. Thanks for having a look.
www.spoontaneous.com
