(A blogpost I started in Nov that I’m finally finishing up because it’s still relevant. Sorry for the random photo sizes, I’m too worn out to fix them. Now I remember why I like Instagram so much…)

For years I have been living with the mentality that since my carving time is limited, I had better only spend it carving what I love most, eating spoons. Someday, when I think I have more time, I’ll take time to learn to carve other things, like making toys for the kids, or by that time, grandkids.

I have been discouraged about my carving ability, or lack thereof. It feels like for every pretty nice spoon I make, I make about 10 more that might be called decent, but probably not. It feels like a waste of time.

This spring, when the Spoon Gathering rolled around. I debated whether or not it was worth going. I had not carved in almost a year, and it felt like too much trouble to start again. I knew that if I didn’t go, it could be years before I was motivated to carve anything again. So we went, and I even went early to take a refresher course with Patrick Diette.

(Check out his work Klipnocky Wood Shop, I Love it! I own more of his spoons than anyone else.)

I left the Spoon Gathering in the middle of making a spatula (I haven’t done a big carving project in years!) for a cousin’s wedding that was due in two weeks.

Nothing like a deadline to keep me going. So instead of enjoying the gathering and putting my knives away as soon as I got home, I had something I had to finish.

When I finished, and posted a photo to Instagram (my account is @jarofwood ),

my sister reminded me she was getting married in two months… So, I dug in my freezer for another blank and started on another spatula since she already has a mixing spoon from me. I was kind of enjoying it too! (Note, this particular blank has been waiting in my freezer for many years waiting for just the right time and occasion to come out.)

The theme of the Spoon Gathering this year was decorating spoons. I’ve never felt brave enough to do any decorations, because after all the work I put into a spoon, I sure didn’t want to ruin it by trying to do something I had never done before. But decorating had caught on, and there was a lot of inspiring photos on IG (Instagram) and I thought it was time to give it a try, after all, I’ve owned Del Stubbs’ kolrosing and detail knives for about 9 years already.

For the first time in a while, I purposefully let myself carve something other than a spoon (a good spatula is just about ask tricky as a good eating spoon), just for the sake of learning. I decided to carve a batch of butter knives to take with me to on vacation for my sister’s wedding, so I could experiment with different angles of blades, and different decorating styles.

It has been a fun process! (Experimenting between kolrosing and chip carving)

When we got back from the wedding, I pulled a piece of wood out of the freezer to have a deadline-free go at another spatula. After all, the wood has been in my freezer for quite some time, and it is taking up a lot of space. While I was at it, I pulled out a few pieces for some eating spoons, to have a smaller project to work on when I got tired of the spatula. When I picked up the axe to work on the spatula, I noticed a difference in my carving. For the first time ever, I wasn’t scared of the axe. Apparently making two spatulas, and seeing how much waste wood I have to remove to make a nice one helped me to have the confidence I have been missing. Even when I moved to the eating spoons for a break, I used the axe to shape the spoons more than I have in the past. Even to work on the neck and the inside of the bowl, two places I have otherwise avoided. And it felt good!

I am proud of how the spoons turned out. Maybe some of my nicest work so far.

(A baby spoon for my new niece.)

The spatula isn’t finished. I have made good progress, but the apple wood I am using is knarly, and it is teaching me a lesson of it’s own: Choose your wood carefully. Bad wood isn’t worth spending time on… But I will finish it sometime…

I don’t have any more deadlines for gifts that I know of right now, so I’m not tied to making things for other people.

You know what I did this week? I carved a twig bird.

Not even a bird attached to a spoon or a knife. A bird without a purpose, but to make me smile, and to see if I could. My boys think it is super cool and want me to make them one to play with. You know what? I am.

I have realized that it is because of my NOT making eating spoons that my eating spoons made a jump in quality. (At least two of the three did…)

You know what else I did today? I made some hooks for the wall out of branches. I’ve wanted to do that for years. There just happened to be a good stock of branches down the street waiting to be picked up. For once I looked at a branch pile by the road and didn’t think about spoons. First I grabbed twigs to make more birds, then I went back for the hooks.

I still have wood in the freezer for spoons, but for now, I am giving myself permission to carve something else for a while.