Project Information
yeah…. so, I FINALLY got a website up and running. Not totally complete, but a good enough portion as to give some folks a basic idea of what I'm into. If you happen to check it out, please let me know if you run into dead or erroneous links. The 'links' page and a couple of others…. I am just starting with those. For us nonlinear folks it takes a bit of time to figure out where (and how) to put things.
http://www.spoontaneous.com
The first spoon up there is the second snake spoon I've made. This WhiteSnake is from Lacewood and after I got done carving the thing, I left it overnight in a container of bleach. Since snakes are shiny, I used a more glossy finish than usual. This was just acrylic floor finish. 12" long.
The second spoon was a piece of Royal Poinciana root sticking out over a canal. Weird shaped spoon…. but kind of pretty wood.
The 'Beast' is maple burl. Second one of these I made, too. I actually carved it a year or two ago…. broke his neck in a vice, glued it back on, gave up on it… until one day I decided to burn in some fur… which covered any repair. Gnarly looking thing.
Next is one of my last pieces of the weeping beech tree from up in Ky (Bernheim Forest) and even though there was a lot of decay.. I still wanted to get another spoon out of it. The center void was all rot.
The last one up there I call 'Daschund' because it reminds me of the color of the little wiener dogs. It is maple burl with some aniline dye.
I bought 4 pieces of driftwood online from the NC coast. One was covered in barnacles and I thought that would be a nice effect…. but the dang barnacles would just rub right off. So I spot glued them with SuperGlue only to discover the wood had holes running every which way, so I tossed it.
Another piece had all these great tiny holes (like a miniature beehive) and I was going to fill those in with pigmented acrylic resin and then carve for a nice effect. I poured and poured the stuff in but the holes never filled… almost a quart. I had the bottom taped off so it wouldn't drip out…. but I'm still mystified by it.
I spent a half day on another piece that had great potential…... well, only in my head. It didn't work out either. So….... long story long is that the last and final piece yielded up a small, weird spoon that I called 'Rip Horn Winkle'. The slits in his eyes were already there and his nose was mostly formed. I just cut off the other 90% of the log and cleaned him up a bit.
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The next one I call '7 Up' and it is carved from a little piece of cedar that was mostly sapwood. I used as much of the hardwood as I could salvage. The sapwood turned out looking like little pyramids to me.
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'Unravel' spoon was carved from Carambola, otherwise known as Star Fruit (Those weird fruit you find at the produce that are star-shaped when you slice through them). I think this might be the last piece of that wood I have…. but I like it enough to go searching for some more.
It had been several days since I got to play (uh… I mean, work) at the shop and when I finally did get there…. I couldn't figure out what to make. I fanned through one of my sketch books but that did nothing to inspire. So I started picking up different pieces of wood and finally, settled on this small branch of Star Fruit.
Since this wood has a nice tight grain… I thought I would just carve a really nice, functional spoon in the Scandinavian style where they use a thicker neck between the bowl and handle for added strength.
That's how it started…. but that is not how it finished. My non-linear mind decided it wanted to add a little twist, and my plan…. (along with the spoon)... began to 'unravel'. What should have been a simple carve turned into a more beastly determined carve.
The spoon measures about 12" long and the spoon bowl is maybe 1 1/4" wide. Underneath the bowl is an added detail which helps to give strength to the thing. As you can tell from the photos the whole handle is pretty thin…. and actually would 'bend' during the (long) sanding process.
One of these days I am going to somehow manage to make one of those 'functional' spoons. (Really!)
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This next spoon is from Cherry Burl and is 5" long. I found it in my box of offcuts and where the bowl was going to be there was this dark line…. which I was hoping would be 'cherry shake', what we called the sap lines in KY. So I pried a small screwdriver in and the thing split the whole top of the bowl off. Of course, since it is burl… it left behind a cool texture…. so I turned the thing end on end and sideways so that the handle became the bowl and the split part gave the handle some texture.
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This one I called 'Podosaurus'. It kept reminding me of some sort of prehistoric microorganism…. but my wife kept saying dinosaur. I thought she might be part right but I couldn't justify the 'pod' bowl…. so we both get to be right. Macadamia wood.
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I have been wanting to start a 'Sticks and Stones' series and when I saw this rock on Etsy I didn't hesitate in buying it. Rocks are in the same 'cool' category as wood. This is called 'Red Creek Jasper' and I used bloodwood and ebony to mount it. The spoon is actually a double bowled spoon since I carved out the bowl under the stone to minimize weight. It looks like one bowl is merging into the next to me. The bloodwood turned out to be a perfect match for the stone. The ebony 'finial' on the end is concave.
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I think this is the last spoon. Did you know that on the other side of the pond they call eggplant…. 'Aubergine'? I didn't…. and when I saw the word used to describe a panther in Alice Walker's book… I had to look it up…. and one thing led to another. Basswood, dyes and acrylics. This one grew to about 8".
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Okay…. you've heard of an alley cat, well…. this is an 'Owly Cat'. Walnut
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Last… but definitely not least…. I was blessed enough to get in the good graces of Jim the Carver and he set about making me some knives. When I received these in the post I took a thin saggy piece of paper and held it on edge. The blade passed through the paper as if it wasn't there. Thank you Jim for my new amazing tools !!!
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Sorry for the long post….. and thanks for having a look.
http://www.spoontaneous.com
The first spoon up there is the second snake spoon I've made. This WhiteSnake is from Lacewood and after I got done carving the thing, I left it overnight in a container of bleach. Since snakes are shiny, I used a more glossy finish than usual. This was just acrylic floor finish. 12" long.
The second spoon was a piece of Royal Poinciana root sticking out over a canal. Weird shaped spoon…. but kind of pretty wood.
The 'Beast' is maple burl. Second one of these I made, too. I actually carved it a year or two ago…. broke his neck in a vice, glued it back on, gave up on it… until one day I decided to burn in some fur… which covered any repair. Gnarly looking thing.
Next is one of my last pieces of the weeping beech tree from up in Ky (Bernheim Forest) and even though there was a lot of decay.. I still wanted to get another spoon out of it. The center void was all rot.
The last one up there I call 'Daschund' because it reminds me of the color of the little wiener dogs. It is maple burl with some aniline dye.
I bought 4 pieces of driftwood online from the NC coast. One was covered in barnacles and I thought that would be a nice effect…. but the dang barnacles would just rub right off. So I spot glued them with SuperGlue only to discover the wood had holes running every which way, so I tossed it.
Another piece had all these great tiny holes (like a miniature beehive) and I was going to fill those in with pigmented acrylic resin and then carve for a nice effect. I poured and poured the stuff in but the holes never filled… almost a quart. I had the bottom taped off so it wouldn't drip out…. but I'm still mystified by it.
I spent a half day on another piece that had great potential…... well, only in my head. It didn't work out either. So….... long story long is that the last and final piece yielded up a small, weird spoon that I called 'Rip Horn Winkle'. The slits in his eyes were already there and his nose was mostly formed. I just cut off the other 90% of the log and cleaned him up a bit.
The next one I call '7 Up' and it is carved from a little piece of cedar that was mostly sapwood. I used as much of the hardwood as I could salvage. The sapwood turned out looking like little pyramids to me.
'Unravel' spoon was carved from Carambola, otherwise known as Star Fruit (Those weird fruit you find at the produce that are star-shaped when you slice through them). I think this might be the last piece of that wood I have…. but I like it enough to go searching for some more.
It had been several days since I got to play (uh… I mean, work) at the shop and when I finally did get there…. I couldn't figure out what to make. I fanned through one of my sketch books but that did nothing to inspire. So I started picking up different pieces of wood and finally, settled on this small branch of Star Fruit.
Since this wood has a nice tight grain… I thought I would just carve a really nice, functional spoon in the Scandinavian style where they use a thicker neck between the bowl and handle for added strength.
That's how it started…. but that is not how it finished. My non-linear mind decided it wanted to add a little twist, and my plan…. (along with the spoon)... began to 'unravel'. What should have been a simple carve turned into a more beastly determined carve.
The spoon measures about 12" long and the spoon bowl is maybe 1 1/4" wide. Underneath the bowl is an added detail which helps to give strength to the thing. As you can tell from the photos the whole handle is pretty thin…. and actually would 'bend' during the (long) sanding process.
One of these days I am going to somehow manage to make one of those 'functional' spoons. (Really!)
This next spoon is from Cherry Burl and is 5" long. I found it in my box of offcuts and where the bowl was going to be there was this dark line…. which I was hoping would be 'cherry shake', what we called the sap lines in KY. So I pried a small screwdriver in and the thing split the whole top of the bowl off. Of course, since it is burl… it left behind a cool texture…. so I turned the thing end on end and sideways so that the handle became the bowl and the split part gave the handle some texture.
This one I called 'Podosaurus'. It kept reminding me of some sort of prehistoric microorganism…. but my wife kept saying dinosaur. I thought she might be part right but I couldn't justify the 'pod' bowl…. so we both get to be right. Macadamia wood.
I have been wanting to start a 'Sticks and Stones' series and when I saw this rock on Etsy I didn't hesitate in buying it. Rocks are in the same 'cool' category as wood. This is called 'Red Creek Jasper' and I used bloodwood and ebony to mount it. The spoon is actually a double bowled spoon since I carved out the bowl under the stone to minimize weight. It looks like one bowl is merging into the next to me. The bloodwood turned out to be a perfect match for the stone. The ebony 'finial' on the end is concave.
I think this is the last spoon. Did you know that on the other side of the pond they call eggplant…. 'Aubergine'? I didn't…. and when I saw the word used to describe a panther in Alice Walker's book… I had to look it up…. and one thing led to another. Basswood, dyes and acrylics. This one grew to about 8".
Okay…. you've heard of an alley cat, well…. this is an 'Owly Cat'. Walnut
Last… but definitely not least…. I was blessed enough to get in the good graces of Jim the Carver and he set about making me some knives. When I received these in the post I took a thin saggy piece of paper and held it on edge. The blade passed through the paper as if it wasn't there. Thank you Jim for my new amazing tools !!!
Sorry for the long post….. and thanks for having a look.
Continue with Google
