Spring has finally sprung. It’s been so refreshing to bring the spoon mule out of the woodshop.
Breakfast treen with a cup of warm tea brightens any damp, rainy morn. I carved the little spoon from apple wood pruned from the orchard at the farm. It’s a crude spoon that I made awhile back, but I do love it and the bowl is the perfect size for scooping just the right amount of tea for one cup.
And the rain won’t stop on some days. I’ve never seen the creek running so high.
I finished my twelfth spoon in my 52 spoons project. I carved it from cherry wood that I found at the farm. My wife, affectionately, of course, dubbed it the “litter scoop.”
The warm weather has inspired me to work more. I also finished a butter spreader that I’m quite happy with.
I also finished my first kuksa from a black cherry burl on a tree I felled at the farm. It’s a place that means so much to me, and I want to remember it when I am in the city. It’s small but the perfect size for a wee bit of whiskey on a cold night.
I asked someone to make me one, but fate intervened to encourage me to make it myself. It’s far from perfect, but I’m proud of this first attempt. One of the things I enjoy so much about handcraft is how it gently yet enthusiastically pushes me to try new things and learn from the tangible outcome.
There are kuksa horses, and then there are kuksa ponies or kuksa lambs. I’ve experimented with bits and bobs of wood to make something to hold some small bowls I’ve been working on. I think that maybe the design was heavily influenced by the many episodes of Shaun the Sheep that my son and I watched recently.
I also bought a kuksa from Greg Nelson. It’s beautiful, and he included a thoughtful note, origami bird, and a little spoon. I was so happy to interview Greg Nelson and Aaron Sparks this month.
I was thinking about how @rivchicawarrior once told me that she frequently kolroses during work meetings. Inspired by that, I brought a minimal kit and a couple spoons to work today and carved during my lunch break. I usually eat and continue to work, so it was wonderfully refreshing to step away from the screen, go outside, and carve for a half hour. No excuses now to not carve every day.
And with the sun setting later now, I can carve outside at home sipping a martini until dusk brings in the darkness.
