Annual Spoon Gathering

We have come to that point again in the year.  June 3rd and 4th in Milan MN people from all walks of life and locations will gather to share their love of spoon carving.  This will be the 5th gathering and my 4th.  It is one of the highlights of the year.  If you have not considered attending do so.  You will learn a ton about carving, and not just spoons.  I will take plenty of pictures to post when I get back.

I also have several almost finished spoons to post about and a review of a new sanding system I finally broke down and purchased.  Too much to get done in order to leave Thursday morning, but will make posting a priority when I get back.

http://www.milanvillageartsschool.org/spoon_gathering.html

Boxelder coffe scoop and spatula

Ok, not sure if this picture is going to come thru. Picasa is giving me problems. Been a couple of months since I posted, and it was a nice break. I needed to set the carving aside for a spell. Now, I am back and read to carve again. 2011 8 Boxelder Coffee Scoop with chip carved handle 2011 9 Boxelder spatula with kelrosing. I would have normally not carved such a thin spatula, but wanted to see just how it would hold up against other more substantial pieces. So far it is great and looks to be keeper.

Short Update

You may notice an update to the blog.  I just added the ability to buy a spoon from my site using the Google Store gadget.  How cool is that.  It needs a bit of work before prime time and better pictures.  I will work on that tonight after my other job.  This will be interesting to say the least.  rod

Boxedler and Oak

2011 6 Boxelder

2011 7 Red Oak

The boxedler spoon turned out very nice with a section of bark left on the bowl. I was able to keep a significant portion of the red grain typical in this wood. Sometimes I am forced to carve out the red while creating a spoon.

The red oak was tough as nails. It was old firewood that was dry and very hard. Even after soaking for several days it was like carving steel.

Both spoons turned out great. I decided to keep the boxelder one as part of my ever growing personal collection. Someday I hope to have enough to display them publicly somewhere.

Kitchen tools

Here are all of the wooden spoons used in our kitchen daily. We cook 90% of our meals at home. Some of these are many years old and to not get treated nicely. Even so a bit of oil and they pop like new. Yes, there are a few plastic tools off to the left. That is a goal for 2011 - to eliminate all the plasitc utinsels we have.

Alleywood Ladle - 2011 05

Here is the completed ladle. I not thinking this is maple any longer. The grain was every which way, the color is a mixture of white, green and various shades of black/brown. Not a fun carve. Irregardless, I continued until the end and decided this one was a keeper. Meaning too ugly to sell. I chipped carved my lastname into the handle. These are my first chip carved letters, and they turned out pretty well. In the end all is well. We do not have a carved ladle in our user collection and this one will do nicely. The first 2 pics are before oiling.

In process Ladle

Here is a new ladle I worked on today - my last day of vacation. It is maple and not nice at all. The grain goes everywhere and I can foresee much sand paper being used to smooth out the details. I planned a square handle, but later refined it into more of a blob. I think once it dries and I finish the process it will not be have bad.

On another note, I went thru my frozen wood reserve and am down to very slim pickings. I have dried out oak that makes my hands hurt just thinking about carving it and some 2nd tier blanks that have been there forever. I need to go a hunting.