Interviews

I’m very happy to share the following interview with Jonathan Jekic.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a 22 year old guy from Germany. I always loved being outside, going to the forest, and of course, working with wood. When I finished school, I did a vocational education as a lumberjack. During my time as a lumberjack, I learned a lot about trees and forests, and I also collected a lot of different woods. It was the perfect time to start green woodworking, as I had an almost unlimited supply of any wood I wanted. In the summer of 2018, I started studying Arboriculture. At the moment I’m learning a lot about trees and their environment. I don’t want to do woodworking full time, but I think it’s cool to combine my personal interests with my future job while learning anything about trees. I also found a lot of new friends at my university with the same interests as me, and I even gave spoon carving lessons to some of them.

How long have you been carving and how did you first get interested in it?

I always carved a lot in my childhood, but I mostly made little figures, wooden knives, and bows. Then three years ago, I started with spoon carving. Back then, I watched a lot of YouTube videos from different outdoor channels, and in one video, someone carved a spoon. I can’t remember the video exactly, but I know that the guy in the video was just making a really simple spoon with a straight handle using a cheap hook knife and his bushcraft knife. Somehow I really liked the idea of making a spoon with simple tools, so I ordered a hook knife and gave it a go.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

My favourite tools are my right-handed Ben Orford medium hybrid hook knife, my Julia Kalthoff carving axe, and my sloyd knife made by Phil Fuentes.

Any suggestions of books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

I learned most of my woodworking skills by watching the videos from Zed outdoors on YouTube. He offers a large variety of videos to any topic of green woodworking with a lot of different makers.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

The people that had the biggest influence in my spoon carving career are probably Spooncarving with Tom and Adam Hawker. Tom’s videos were a great help when I started carving, and his spoons are still a huge inspiration. Adam’s kolrosing tutorial on Youtube opened a whole new opportunity for me to decorate my spoons. There are a lot of other great makers too that I just can’t name all here.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

When I started spoon carving, I didn’t know anything about green woodworking. I usually picked up a piece of wood and just started carving. Nowadays, I really pay attention to what kind of wood I carve and how I turn the piece of wood dependent on intended decoration or desired grain pattern. I also try to make my spoons as thin as possible without creating weak spots in the designs. If you look at some of my older spoons, you can see that they were not quite as thin as my newer ones.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

I have tried all the decorative techniques, but my all-time-favorite by far is kolrosing. I really like to try out different patterns or even small paintings on my spoons. Sometimes I combine some chip carving elements with kolrosing. It really makes the spoon more interesting. Kolrosing is easier than it looks, and I can only recommend anyone that is into spoon carving to try it out. Milk paint is really cool too, but I only have red and black milk paint at home at the moment, so my options for using it are minimal. I also use milk paint only on lighter wood like sycamore, field maple, or cherry.

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

Craft, sloyd, and wood culture mean to me to create a beautiful, usable item from a piece of inconspicuous wood while having a great time making it. Everything you create from a piece of wood using only hand tools makes a really unique piece that, in some cases, may not be as durable or practical as a mass-produced item, but it will always catch an eye before something mass-produced. It also makes a huge difference if you give something as a gift that you made by yourself with blood, sweat, and tears.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

I carve spoons because I really enjoy making them. Every spoon you make looks unique, and even if you have two spoons with the same shape, the colour of the wood and the grain orientation are always individual. Spoon carving is super relaxing, and it’s really rewarding to see the process you make when you look at spoons you made some months ago. There are so many beautiful kinds of wood you can use, infinite designs and decoration techniques, and you can always learn something and improve your skills when you try out something new.

Thanks Jonathan! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @jonathan_jekic.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.

One of my goals with this website is to connect with the spoon carving community, so it was wonderful when I received an email from Gorazd Richter a year ago with some kind words about my writing. I appreciated his thoughtfulness then, and the comments we have shared since then on Instagram, so I’m very happy to share the following interview with Gorazd.

Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Gorazd Richter. I live in Prague, and I love spoon carving and green woodworking. My wife and I have two children.

How long have you been carving and how did you first get interested in it?

My fascination with wood began since I took my first course in woodworking in 2013 in Nova Ves u Brloha in the Czech Republic. Robert Maly, a master carpenter and great teacher who taught me a lot about the woodcraft at that time and gave me my passion for woodcraft. He had spent a lot of time in Norway as a traditional woodworker, so he is very educated in that way of woodworking.

Since then, I’ve spent all of my spare time working with wood, reading books, and looking up information on the internet. Then I discovered the beautiful book Living Wood by Mike Abbott and learned about the pole lathe. I have never ever before seen something so magical like pole lathe. I had to build it. Mike Abbott writes so nicely about his life journey and green woodworking that I immediately fell in love with this craft. Before reading this book, I had no idea that it is possible to work with green wood. In our country, I always heard the mantra that wood must be dried before you work with it. I had no idea that you could use green wood the way Mike Abbott showed in the book.

Later, I found out about Robin Wood, Ben Orford, and Barn the Spoon and the world of spoon carving and new wood culture, which was like a whole new dimension of green woodworking to me. In May 2019, I carved my first wooden spoon.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

My favourite instrument is an axe. I just love to work with an axe. I have two axes. One is Norwegian type of axe made by a great blacksmith and woodworker Frantisek Teryngel. It is an excellent tool. The other axe is a regular axe from a local hardware store. Then I like, of course, the Mora 106 and 120 sloyd knives.

Any suggestions of books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

For me, absolutely number one is the book Living wood by Mike Abbott and of course, Barn the Spoon’s Spoonclub website . It is an excellent educational site, and Barn the Spoon is just great. He is a world-class teacher and spoon carver. I must also say that your site is very helpful to me as well and if I need to find some information about spoon carving, tools, or books, I usually find it here. I remember when I was looking info about spoon carving and found your site… how I was immersed in reading your journal. It is so beautiful how you write about your journey in spoon carving. I love it very much. I also love the videos which made Zed Outdoors or Ben Orford on YouTube.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

I must say Barn the Spoon again because he had such an influence on me. Also, Jarrod Dahl, Robin Wood, JoJo Wood, Mike Abbott, Wille and Jogge Sundqvist, Owen Thomas, Tom Bartlett, Niklas Karlsson, Yoav Kafets, Sharif Adams, Maryanne McGinn, Emmet Van Driesche, Jill Swan, Dawson Moore, and Daniel Lundberg. I feel also influenced by Martin Patřičný from the Czech Republic, who is one of our most famous woodcarvers. He makes beautiful wooden images, and he writes beautifully about trees and wood. I really love his work very much. Actually, everybody, I follow on Instagram has an impact on me. I might look at a picture of a spoon I like, and it influences my thinking about what I will be carving next. There are great craftsmen out there, and everybody who is not afraid to work with their hands and tries to create something useful and beautiful is an inspiration for me.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

I think that my carving techniques are slowly evolving. Practice makes perfect as they say. The more I am carving, the more efficient I am becoming.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

I think they are great. It is a whole new dimension in spoon carving, which adds depth to the craft. One of the great things about spoon carving is that you can always learn something new. It never gets boring. It is beautiful. Recently I have just discovered the art of kolrosing, and it was a very exhilarating experience for me. I like it very much!

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

I think that people are starting to realize that the comfort we live in doesn’t bring happiness in our life. We are becoming more and more addicted to a comfortable life and just consuming stuff. We are starting to realize that there is more to life. We feel empty inside and want to fill the emptiness with something. I suppose many people are starting to realize that the empty space can be filled by creating something useful or beautiful with our hands. We are beginning to understand that living a comfortable life isn’t the same as living a happy life. I believe in creating there is something divine. The new wood culture is a symbol for me that we do not want to live our lives as sheep in this world. We want to do something meaningful and use our full potential. New wooden culture is, for me, a movement of those people who are not afraid to get out of their comfort zone and leave the consuming way of life behind themselves and make the world a better place.

If I may, I would like to quote Mahatma Gandhi. His words might resonate in the context of the new wood culture:

“It is a tragedy of the first magnitude that millions of people have ceased to use their hands as hands. Nature has bestowed upon us this great gift which is our hands. If the craze for machinery methods continues, it is highly likely that a time will come when we shall be so incapacitated and weak that we shall begin to curse ourselves for having forgotten the use of the living machines given to us by God.” – Mahatma Ghandi

If you had to pick a few songs to listen to while carving, what would they be?

The album “Jak to doopravdy bylo s Babinskym” by Michal Tucny (very famous Czech country singer) and Zdenek Rytir.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

I carve spoons because I like to use them while cooking. I appreciate the look and feel of them, and so do my wife and kids. It is something very tangible. Something I have created with my hands. Whenever I look at the spoons I carved, I feel happy inside that I was able to create something with my own hands which can be used every day for preparing meal. For me, spoon carving is like meditation. This work absorbs me. It is a magical process of creation I am part of. With just an axe and knife, you can create something useful! Isn’t it a miracle? I suppose it is. I think we almost as people forgot to use our hands. I believe hands are the most wonderful tools God gave us.

Spoon carving is such a wonderful activity because of its complexity. You have to use your head, hands, imagination, sharp tools, knowledge, and experience to create a spoon. It is challenging, and you cannot do it mindlessly. Your mind must be present at every moment; otherwise, you cut yourself with a knife. You even are forced to develop your other skills like painting, for instance, if you want to make your own design of spoon. You use tools to make a circle and then start to think how to make ellipse or how to divide the circle and then you realize how spoon carving is forcing you to use past lessons from school that might otherwise have been forgotten. I always wanted to work with an axe as much as possible, but I didn’t know where it would be possible to its full extension until I found spoon carving.

I believe that spoon carving makes me also a better human, man, father, and husband. It also has therapeutic effects – living in the present moment, cleansing your head. Carving gives me freedom. With just an axe and knife, and you can create beautiful, useful things anywhere. The freedom spoon carving offers is divine. It is also something tangible I can show to my kids, so they understand what I do, and they can see me doing it, and they understand it. It adds great value to the way we are raising our children.

Thanks Gorazd! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @gorazd.richter.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.

This past summer I was in Decorah and I bumped into Scott Johnson at Vesterheim during Nordicfest. I’ve had the good fortune to meet a number of good people in the spoon carving community, but I knew that there was something special about Scott as soon as I met him. Over the next few minutes after saying hello, he was showing me how to kolrose and making my child a kolrosed pendant that had a story to go with it. I’m looking forward to returning to Decorah to take Scott’s kolrosing class at Vesterheim in 2020. In the meantime, I’m honored that he shared his time to answer some questions that I had for him.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I live in the Nebraska Sandhills, south of the Niobrara, and north of the Elkhorn. I am a Husband, Father, Grandfather, and friend. We have three children and seven grandchildren. I work full time as a service/operation tech for a natural gas company.

I love to carve anything I can kolrose. Kolrosing is one of my passions. I also love working with steel, tin, and silver. Most of what I make – spoons, shrink pots, knives, tools, and jewelry – are given away. I believe the best way for me to make the world a better place is “One Smile at a Time.” The phrase that best sums me up is ( just happy to be here)

How long have you been carving and how did you first get interested in it?

I started kolrosing in 2016. This lead to carving spoons, shrink boxes, and many other items. My father carved spoons and chip carved. I was not interested in carving when dad could have taught me. Life happened, dad passed on, but his knowledge of carving did not. One of life’s tragedies is not learning or passing on the skills and knowledge of those that came before us.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

I mostly use Pinewood Forge (Del Stubbs) hook knives. I have one of each, and they are very good knives. I can pick up what I need in Milan, Minnesota, at the Spoon Gathering. For a sloyd knife, I use the Morakniv 106 and 120. These are well made inexpensive knives that will get the job done. I use an old Perfection hewing hatchet/axe flat on one side. I also use an axe and hatchet that I forged. For kolrosing, I make my own tools, except for one, Pinewood Forge’s Kolrosing knife.

Any suggestions of books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

Slöjd In Wood by Jögge Sundqvist, Spon by Barn the Spoon and Swedish Carving Techniques By Wille Sundqvist. Also, the Spoon Carving, Green Woodworking and Sloyd (Facebook) has great files and members that can inspire and answer many questions.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

Most of the carvers I follow kolrose or chip carve their work. Jögge Sundqvist, Fred Livesay, Alexander Yerks, Dane Licina, Carlos Eric, Jane Mickelborough, Amy Leake, and Adam Hawker, just to name a few. Jögge Sundqvist is the Carver I admire most. I attended a class he taught at Vesterheim. I was inspired by his passion, energy, and creativity with natural wood forms.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

I still have meager skills when compared to most spoon carvers. Having said that, I have slowly improved. Less sanding and more knife work/burnishing. Longer cuts with improved knife skills. I believe improving my sharpening skills has greatly improved my carving.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

I love them all, these techniques can add to the beauty of the wood and enhance the form of the spoon. Too much can be distracting and impair the spoons function. If you are afraid to get your spoon dirty or to clean it out, it’s probably too much.

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

Three words sum this up best – DO IT YOURSELF. If we always keep this in mind, we will be amazed at what we can accomplish. We will become better problem solvers, more self-sufficient and reliant, able to do more with less. The distractions of technology, take our focus away from the simple things in life. I believe many people want to simplify there lives, and spoon carving is a great place to start.

If you had to pick a few songs to listen to while carving, what would they be?

I love instrumental movie soundtracks, Quigley Down Under, The Untouchables, Transformers, Lord of the Rings Return of the King, O Fortuna from Excalibur, and many more.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

The people in the spoon carving/folk art community are kind, gracious, and supportive. I have met many people that spark my creativity and inspire me. I have made many new friends at spoon carving events like the Spoon Gathering in Milan, Minnesota. This community gives me the inspiration I need to keep carving spoons.

Thanks Scott! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @skolroser.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.

I’m very happy to share an interview with Björn Svantesson.

Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Björn Svantesson, and I’m from the southwest of Sweden. I recently celebrated ten years of spoon carving, hooray! I carved my first spoon at Sätergläntan school of crafts, where I studied for two years. Sätergläntan was a truly inspiring place to me, it really opened my eyes to the old craft traditions and taught me the basics of traditional woodworking and slöjd.

But even before Sätergläntan, creating things with my hands has always been important to me. I got my first knife when I was four years old. Whittling away on sticks and pieces of driftwood was just one of many ways of scratching that creative itch when I grew up, alongside with drawing and playing music.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

When it comes to knives, not much beats a slightly worn-down Mora 106. But really any longer, not too wide, hollow ground knife that keeps a good edge does the job. For hook knives, I use a smaller one made by the legendary Swedish blacksmith Bo Helgesson and a large twca cam by Hans Karlsson. Both are really good. The axe I mostly use is an antique Swedish carpenters axe from Urafors.

Any suggestions for books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

To me, the silent carving videos with Barn are really inspiring and informative. You’ll find them on Youtube. They’re well-made and really show the process without unnecessary talk. There are also a few really skilled carvers on Instagram who have shared their methods in step by step tutorials. Check out Emmet van Driesche and Darrick Sanderson.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

Barn the Spoon and Darrick Sanderson are really inspiring to me. They both have a brilliant sense of lines and proportions. But there are so many good carvers out there who constantly inspire me.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

I have been working with the same tools and methods since I started. Axe, knife, and hook knife working together to create a spoon. But I have been refining my techniques over the years. Changing the order in which I carve certain parts of the spoon and improving my control over the tools.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

I usually don’t to a lot of any of it, just the occasional chip carving. But I can really enjoy other people’s work. Some kolrosing can really give that extra touch to a spoon.

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

The concept of sloyd (or slöjd, as we say in Swedish) and what is and what is not slöjd is a tricky but interesting question to me. As a craft tradition that, like many other craft traditions, originates from a society of self-sufficiency, it tells me something about being able to be reliant on yourself. To, with the help of a few simple hand tools, and some basic knowledge, be able to create what you need. Without romanticizing past, hard times, I think that is a good thing. Maybe more today than ever, not for your survival or because you actually need to, but because I think it makes you grow as a human. We are surrounded by anonymous products that have gone through a long chain of production. Boring, lifeless plastic junk. To me, slöjd is a counterweight to that. Slöjd gives you a choice to make it yourself instead. To be in control, and to feel the power and joy of creating something with your hands. Well, I can go on and on about this, but I think you get it.

If you had to pick a few songs to listen to while carving, what would they be?

Good music is one of my best companions when I’m working on my own. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but I have a few songs that I keep coming back to. Here’s three of them:

“Firecracker” by Frazey Ford. American folk singer with the most amazing voice.

“Vesna” by DakhaBrakha. This is a band that plays Ukrainian folk music. It can’t be described, but please listen. It’s fantastic!

“If I could only fly” by Blaze Foley. Blaze is one of my favorite songwriters, if you don’t know him, you should check him out.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

Because it makes me happy. It’s a game that I can play over and over again and never get tired of. Trying to get those lines and proportions to work together and make a beautiful and well-functioning spoon never gets old for me. I have been doing it for ten years now, and it just keeps getting more and more fun.

Thanks Björn! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @bonhasbjorn.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.

For a long time, I’ve enjoyed Sven Kramer’s beautiful photographs of his carving as much as I respect his work as a carver. I’m elated that he took the time to do an interview and answer some questions I had for him.

Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Sven, 46 years old, and I work as a nurse. I am married, and I have two daughters. We are living in Bochum, Germany, in a small apartment, from where we can look over the whole city.

How long have you been carving and how did you first get interested in it?

I was born in the Erzgebirge, a German area where people do a lot of traditional carving. So carving and woodcraft was an important part of my childhood. I have been carving since I was a little boy, and I learned to use carving tools when I was a child. As a young man, I have also worked as a carpenter for four years. For some reason, I became a nurse later and didn’t for a while. A few years ago, I started again, because a group of kids asked me to carve knives and swords for each of them. While searching for a new carving axe, I found the spoon carving scene on the internet, and my passion came back.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

My favorite tools are a knife and a hook made by Matt White and a Hans Karlsson carving axe. Sometimes I use a Mora 106, a Svante Djärv knife, and Robin Wood hooks. Always remember, even the best knives are useless when they are not sharp! For the last finish, I prefer using two round stones (one from the north sea and one from the Baltic sea) and an old folding bone. … that’s all!

Any suggestions of books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

I have only read a single book about spoon carving, The Art of Whittling by Niklas Karlsson, and it had a significant influence on me. I find Instagram very inspiring, especially the spoon carver and the greenwood working scenes.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

All of them inspire me in their own way. A few important carvers for me are Emmet van Driesche, Joel Larabell, Georg (@schorsch555), Annette Koehnen, Daniel Lundberg, Niklas Karlsson, Matt White and many, many more.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

My technique must have become al lot better over time, I know it because I need fewer band-aids than in the beginning. I have tried to copy spoon carving techniques from other carvers, for example holding the spoon against the breastbone while carving, but I realized that this does not work for me. So I simply carve as I learned it as a boy. I hold the knife with my right hand and move the blade with the left thumb. It gives me the best result, and you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

Why not? I think everything is allowed to improve your personal style. Sometimes I try out techniques like those. But mostly I like my spoons clean, without frills.

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

I am living in the city, surrounded by too many people, cars, houses, so working with wood connects me with nature again.

If you had to pick a few songs to listen to while carving, what would they be?

I usually do not listen to music while carving because I enjoy the stillness.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

It brings balance and calmness into my life, which is often hectic and stressful. When I am carving, I forget the time, and I just love the process of creating something with my hands out of a simple piece of wood.

Thanks Sven! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @kramex_carving.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.

I’m very happy to share this interview with Nick Murphy.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a husband to a wonderful wife who is tolerant of woodchips all over the house, and a father to two busy children (with another on the way!). I run a Forest School in Devon in a beautiful piece of woodland where we host a variety of sessions for kids and also run adult training. I love my work; I function at my best when I’m outdoors surrounded by trees, and it allows me to tailor sessions to the needs of those who attend. I’ve been doing it for nearly six years, and my belief in the Forest School ethos strengthens with each session. It also allows me first dibs on any fallen wood I find whilst rambling through the woods.

How long have you been carving and how did you first get interested in it?

Six years ago, I trained to become a forest school leader, and as part of the course, I was required to make some useful items from the woodland, and so I made a spoon. Something strange happened to me that day as I entered my first ever spoon-trance. I found the axe work mesmerizing, and completely lost myself for the best part of the day, sat peacefully in the woods whittling away. Little did I know it would evolve into what it has. I studied music at University and still play every day, though once the kids are asleep, I can’t be making too much noise, and so carving satisfies my creative needs whilst being relatively peaceful. My first spoon sits on the chest of drawers at my parents’ house, and when I visit, it’s a lovely reminder of where it began and how far I’ve come.

What are a few of your favorite spoon carving tools?

I love my tools. You can’t deny that one of the best carving knives is the Mora 106 for its quality and price. I do like handmade tools, however, and my go-to sloyd knives are made by Svante Djärv and the equally fantastic Nic Westermann. Superb craftsmanship at its best. I use several different hooks regularly; a Nic Westermann fawcett blade, a Robin Wood compound curve, and a lovely little hook made by Belzeboo Crafts. I struggled with a poorly made hook knife for well over a year before I spent a little more on these knives, and it was a complete game-changer for me. A good knife is a pleasure to use and easy to sharpen. I seem to have some sort of problem with Axes. They are such awesome tools. Whereas you can get by very well with a cheap axe, and also find and restore some lovely old heads from junkyards, I like Viking style axes. I like a bearded axe with a decent sweep and a good blade length. I regularly use a Hans Karlsson Sloyd axe, the Njord from Landvirke forge, and my most recent and increasingly favoured axe from Peter Kovacs of Soulwood Creations.

Any suggestions of books or websites to learn about spoon carving or woodwork?

I’ve only read two books on carving. Willie Sundqvist Swedish Carving techniques and Spōn by Barn. Two fantastic and very different books. I think most others interviewed have spoken enough about these, so I won’t repeat all that has been said. I’m a kinaesthetic learner, however, and there is a huge difference between reading how to do something and seeing it done and putting tools to wood. I wish I had gone on a course when I first started to get a better idea of how to apply the technique, and I’d advise anyone interested to do so. The ‘Spoon Carving, Greenwood working and Sloyd’ Facebook group was endlessly helpful to me initially also, and the admin team and members are very generous with their knowledge and advice and encouragement. I probably wouldn’t have continued carving after my first spoon without the inspiration I found there.

Are there any particular spoon carvers who inspire you in your work?

There are many. Buying spoons from makers I admire helped my understanding of form and function. My first spoon was purchased from Patrick Diette and blew my mind. The finish achieved from a good maker through knives alone is something to wonder at. There are many others who inspire me hugely and to make it simple, just look at those I follow on my Instagram account. I only follow carvers, so you won’t have to look far. I’m thankful for the connections I’ve made with many of these lovely people and to those who have helped me along my way, you know who you are, and I thank you.

How have your spoon carving techniques changed over time?

I’m a clumsy sod at the best of times, and thankfully for my own health, my technique has become safer. This is in part through learning how to sharpen my knives to a razor-edge, which allows cleaner, precise, and more efficient cuts to be made. I’m better now at visualizing a spoon prior to starting carving, and experience in working the wood and reading its grain allows me to gauge better how to achieve it. Practice. Practice. Practice. Enjoy the process without pressure to achieve the final result……and accept the failures as learning experiences along the way.

What are your thoughts on popular decorative techniques like milk paint, kolrosing, or chip carving?

Go for it. Or not. It’s your spoon, and you should do what you like with it. I used to kolrose the heck out of every spoon I made…..though I think in my early spoons I was trying to polish a turd. For me now, the focus should always be on form and function. Once this has been achieved, decorating can either enhance the spoon greatly or detract away from the beauty of the wood. The decision is completely with the maker to express themselves how they wish.

What do craft, sloyd, or wood culture mean to you?

Okay, this is a minefield and a potential essay in itself and encompasses so much more than just spoon-carving. From my understanding of sloyd, it’s an ethos of teaching, learning, using, creating, and sharing the experiences of doing so. It’s about being resourceful and practical with respect for the materials in use and doing so in a way that benefits and enriches the lives of the maker and others.

If you had to pick a few songs to listen to while carving, what would they be?

Where do you even start with this question? I’ll tell you where the last week has taken me; Dirk Powell, Todd Snider, Tom Waits, Cody Jinks, Chris Smither, Colter Wall, Kelly Joe Phelps……I could go on all day.
I despise shallow music. Studying Music at degree level broadened my tastes hugely and made me appreciate the amazing diversity in music, the skills of those who create it, and the importance it has always had in our stories as a people. That’s what it’s all about….. it’s stories. I love them. Give me a tune and song that has a message and something to make you think. A story that immerses you completely and forces you to stop and listen. If I didn’t listen to music when I carve, it’d probably take me half the time it does. I wouldn’t change it, though. Here’s a good one I found a few months past that isn’t too demanding, but utterly beautiful and relevant to our times; ‘Mercy Now‘ by Mary Gauthier. Get your hanky ready.

Lastly, why do you carve spoons?

Simply put, I’m a maker. I need to create stuff, be it music, spoons, a tent peg for a shelter at work in the woods, or a simple fire to boil a kettle. Carving spoons is a creative outlet that satisfies my needs. It’s mindfulness at its best and allows time for reflection whilst at peace. I find it almost meditative.

Thanks Nick! You can follow him and inquire about purchasing his spoons on Instagram at @murphys_spoon.

As I have said previously, my goals with this website are to learn more about spoon carving and connect with the great community of spoon carvers out there. I welcome carvers to contact me if you would like to be interviewed to share your thoughts on the craft of spoon carving.