Love Spoon for a Couple Who Loves Cats, Music, and Writing

 In the realm of creative things I did in 2025 but never posted about was wood carving. 

I spent over a month carving this love spoon. A gift for my niece as a wedding gift, I used images of things that are relative to her and her fiancé's life. 

Both of them love cats, so that was a major theme of the carving. One of them is a musician so I included the image of a treble clef. The other is a hobbyist writer, hence the quill pen and ink bottle.

It was carved from basswood. 

Spoon Carving Season

Summer is normally the time of year that I carve wooden spoons. I sit on the screened in side porch for hours, whittling away.  That is, if the temperature is not unbearable AND I have fresh, “green” wood to carve.

This year the woods have not yielded many fallen, living trees or limbs, so I haven’t had much to work with. Months ago a friend gave me some cherry wood which is my favorite. By now, much of it dried out and now it is too hard to carve. Luckily though, I stuck a couple of pieces in the fridge. (That keeps it moist enough for me to cut.)

I pulled out one piece today and carved a small spoon for myself. The limb had lots of knots in it; too many to work around. Since carvable wood has been hard to come by, I use whatever I can. It’s an imperfect spoon but since it’s going to be mine, it is just fine.

First Black Walnut Spoon

Black Walnut Spoon

Here's my first black walnut spoon. I'm happy with it. It wasn't overly difficult to carve and I love the look.

Finding Black Walnut for a Spoon

First Time Carving Black Walnut

 I had been searching for freshly downed trees for months. Never did I find anything of interest. THEN I found a downed black walnut! 

I had never carved black walnut before and wondered if it would be too hard for me. I am used to green sycamore wood, which is so easy to carve. This black walnut wasn't bad though, and I love the grain!

Sycamore Spoon and Scoop with Chip Carving

Sycamore Spoon and Scoop with Chip Carving

 I wanted to mail these to a friend weeks ago but I couldn’t get myself to box them until just now. Hopefully, I will make it to the post office this morning. The carving and fun stuff, I can get done easily. The administrative stuff is a little more difficult.

Hand Carved Spoon Gift

These are some of my hand carved spoons that I gave to a friend the other day.

I gave her a bunch because I can never ever ever choose a spoon for someone that is the same they would have chosen for themself....theirselves? their self? 

People often like the little spoons. The one on the left is probably sycamore. The spatula next to it is also probably sycamore.

The next spatula is a "spoon-u-la." It is made from spalted maple. I had cut it specifically for a friend who wanted this design exactly. Unfortunately, after carving it, I realized I had carved it as a mirror image of what she wanted. Ugh. I had traced a pattern of what she wanted and then flipped it over when I went to trace it. Hopefully, that was a lesson learned. (The friend didn't reject it, by the way. I did.)

Also, this wood was very hard and it took me many hours to carve. It was a beautiful piece, but wow. Spatulas are hard for me to carve anyway. That slight curve down to the flat part is difficult to do.

The next spoon is almost a ladle. I think it is also sycamore. It has a couple of knots In the bowl. Sometimes, these things seem to show up after I have already invest many hours in carving them.

The last spoon is cherry. My favorite wood next to anything spalted. I added this spoon to the mix because it was perfect. I don't know if any of the others would be considered perfect.

Chip Carving on My Spoons

 Chip Carving on Spoons

This is the time of year when I pull out the carving tools. 

Last year, I carved a bunch of spoons with the intention to chip carve them this year. Nice idea, but boy is this wood hard!

I’ve got a little chip carving done on these and am not sure if I am finished carving them or not. I need to sand them a little to get rid of my pencil marks.

Cherry Spoon with Chip Carving

 My sister called me to come visit after they took down a cherry tree.  I took several green limbs home and am now regretting that I didn't take far more.  I probably got eight spoons out of the lot.

Here's one I finished yesterday. It is being gifted to an old friend who grew up on the property from which that cherry tree grew.

I really like this one.  I am working on thinning out the bowl. It seems to me that, out of caution, most folks carve thick bowled spoons in the beginning. Well, at least after they carve holes in them a couple of times. I feel as though I did a nice job on thinning this one out.  

And I am happy with the chip carving.

Coffee Scoop Gift to Me.......from Me

 I carved this coffee scoop in the late spring. It was intended as a gift, though I loved it and wanted it for myself. (I have so few of my spoons that I love, as I give them all away!)

As I prepared carved wooden spoons for gifting, I photographed groups of spoons and let the recipients choose the one they wanted. No one ever chose this one. So, yesterday I decided that it was a sign that this was meant to stay here with me.  It is so goofy at how happy I am at a gift from me to me.

The Most Difficult Part of Carving Spoons

The most difficult part of spoon carving for me, is the part where you box them up and mail them to loved ones. Parting with the spoons is not the hard part. It is the actual physical shipping and handling that is just no fun. 

These need to head out though. My goal is to take them to the post office on Monday. 

The spoon on the left gets delivered to a friend who lives near the post office, so that is handy. That one is oak and the wood came from my friend’s yard. 

The second from the left is from a piece of cherry that I got from a farmhouse in West Virginia; my favorite spot on the planet. The cherry branch had been in my freezer for a couple of years. That spoon goes to a friend who has been teaching yoga on Zoom for free during the pandemic. She isn’t expecting this gift.

The one in the middle and the one on the far right go to my daughter’s best friend from high school. She isn’t expecting anything either. The white one is (I think) tulip poplar and the large one on the far right is crabapple. Both pieces were sourced from my neighborhood. 

The apple had been trimmed from a yard up the street and was in a debris pile on the curb. The tulip poplar (or is it maple???) had fallen next to a creek in the woods across the street. This piece is intended as a coffee scoop and is two tablespoons deep. Upon reflection, a bright white wood may not have been the best choice for a coffee scoop. The discolorization it will get wouldn’t bother me, but it probably would bother a lot of folks.

The fourth spoon from the right goes to my sister. Her husband had to take down a tree in the front yard because it was dying. I love this wood!!! Hopefully I can get a few more pieces before it totally dries out. I grew up in the house my sister lives in so this wood is extra special for me. Kids from the old neighborhood have asked for a spoon made from that tree since it represents home. I need to made one for myself first.

Oak Spoon with Chip Carving

Here is the finished product that I was working on earlier in the week. Ta da!

Cherry Spoons

My spoon carving doesn't start happening until after Easter.   This year, I had a difficult time coming across green wood to carve, so I got a late start.

On a recent trip to West Virginia, the friend from whom I rent a mountain top farmhouse told me I could cut a limb off her cherry tree.  Oh happy day!!!!!!!!!  Cherry is one of my favorite woods for spoon carving.

I carefully selected a limb that would not be missed. Probably I got about 10 spoons worth of cherry.

My first spoon was carved for my friend.  When I carve there, I hole up in a funky side porch area that is out of the wind. Many times when my friend visited the farm and came over to say hello, she picked up the spoon to inspect it.  I don't think she knew it was intended for her.

When I was finished the carving, I wood burned "County Line Cherry" into the side of the handle to show the wood came from her farm.  Sometimes it is so very hard to let go of these things!

(In the background is the "mother" tree.)

Busy Days

Oooooh, today feels like Fall.  It is dreary and gray out. I'm at home alone, so it is a great time to try and catch up here.

We were away from home a lot this summer.  West Virginia was home for a month.  I spent all of August at my favorite place on earth; a farmhouse on the top of Allegheny Mountain. Friends came to visit.  Family came to visit.  We crafted.  We spent nights outside watching major meteor showers.  I saw the Northern Lights!!! I sang to cows.  I missed friends while I was there, but never missed a day of living in the suburbs.

The week after we came home, we hosted family as my uncle was to be buried at Arlington Cemetery. As always, it was a sad day but visiting with family felt warm and fuzzy and comfy.

Days later, Mark and I headed down to Florida.  Friends rented a house on the water for a month and invited us to spend a week.  We did a bit of paddling, including sharing a paddle with an alligator.  Trying to maneuver myself onto a sit-on-top kayak from a dock, as a gator was watching nearby, really freaked me out.  It turned out to be a four foot gator who could not have cared less about us, but it was very exciting.

From Florida, I drove to Charlotte, NC to spend a week with my daughter.  She flew east from L.A. for training related to her job.  As she did work things, I spent my days in the pool, thrift shopping, and working on my TeachersPayTeachers shop.  Few people can make me giggle as much as my daughter does.  We slept a lot and giggled a lot. Luckily, we left town a day or two before the riots started.

Now that I am home, I am carving like a mad woman; as non-stop as possible.

Walking Sticks

I love summer.  I spend my days out on my screened porch carving.  Actually, I am just getting back into the carving.  But here are the things I've been working on.  Spoon carving again.  Simple spoon carving but it is very satisfying to work on.  And walking sticks.

This walking stick needs a little work before it is done, but I'll get that done today.  The wood burned design took many hours.  They have fancy, schmancy pyrography (woodturning) tools now, but I am using a beginner's tool from the craft store. Oh how that expensive tool calls my name.