First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who read my first post. I was really excited by the response I got, and hope you all continue to follow. There's no sense in rambling if nobody is going to read it, so I greatly appreciate it.
The picture above is a few spoons and a spatula I made, some of my first works. They were just washed and are drying after another great meal, made even more special with handmade utensils. I use these spoons everyday, along with a few smaller ones I rotate in and out to eat my breakfast and lunch. I put this picture up to show how I use my spoons and what I intend for them when I make them. Every time I sell a spoon, or gift one, I try to emphasize USE IT. Use it everyday if you can; we live in a culture that we encounter so few truly handmade items on a daily basis, and we're missing out on the simple joy of just having and using something that someone made. What I'm trying to do with the spoons is make it easy and affordable to get some handmade back into our lives.
For a long time now I've wanted to work wood. To create, to start with a tree and to end up with something special, and hopefully be able to sell the things I make. I was restless in this pursuit though, and could never settle on what I wanted to make or how I wanted to make it. I wanted to make cabinets...no chairs...how about tables. I'll do period pieces...or Shaker...no, no Krenov. I wanted to do it all with handtools, I wanted to do it all with machines, or I'd blend both . All that indecision and I still had no idea who I'd sell them to. Who could afford a handmade piece of furniture? How could I find them? Then I realized there is a lot of math involved in cabinet/chair/table making and unfortunately, math and I don't get along! Then I saw Peter Follansbee carving Swedish style spoons on Roy Underhill's show, and I thought, WOW! That's it..... that is what I want to do. So I went and ordered a hook knife and a sloyd knife, and while I was waiting for them to come I took my little camping hatchet out to the firewood pile. I began to split and hew to my heart's content and by the time my knives came I had four or five blanks already roughed out waiting to be refined into usable spoons. That's what I did; I carved and I refined until they were spoons, and it felt so natural and liberating to work wood with these simple tools in an old time way using skills that we developed as human beings ages ago. I was proud of these spoons. I put them in the utensil bucket next to the stove, and a couple of them are the ones we use every night to make and serve meals.
This is a very short version of how I got here now, with one of the things we all use everyday..... a spoon. I sell my spoons for about $25 to $30, depending on the size; I've been told make sure you get "this for that one" and "that for this one," but I like to keep it simple. I don't want people to feel like handmade is unattainable or something that one needs to save up for, and I also want people to use them. The more things cost, the more apt we are to put them on a shelf for display.
So, if you're out there with a spoon I have made, or somebody else has made, or anything you have that is truly handmade - I hope it enriches your life because that is what it's maker intended.......
Wow cool spoons!!!!
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