A Couple of Leaf Spoons

One for the right hand and one for the left… all that is left to do is to sand and oil them. I really like this design. It is something I came up with while negotiating a tricky knot one day. I ended up carving one side of the bowl inward, around where the knot was causing a small split… and eureka, it looked like a leaf! Then, I curved the tip of the handle in the opposite direction to give it a very satisfying mirrored shape.

The shape of the bowl makes one more appropriate for either a left or right handed person. I also adjusted the handle slightly to fit the hand of either person more comfortably. Notice the little knot at the bottom of the left-handed spoon - that is going to look great after it is oiled!

The wood is from a small American Holly tree that needed to be thinned. Two of them had come up far too crowded between a couple of pines and a small oak. Such factors are how I decide whether or not to cut living trees. I choose crowded trees that should be thinned for the health of the forest, storm damaged trees or trees that threaten to fall on houses and such. This makes my woodcarving very sustainable and responsible.

I find American Holly to be a particularly beautiful wood that is ideal for spoon carving. The wood is very finely grained and smooth. It feels good in the hand and in the mouth. It is so white though, that it can be hard to see the depth and some of the finer details in a photo. Oiling the spoons will allow those aspects to show much better, so I will wait to list them for sale until they are sanded and oiled.

One thing I really like about this design is that the sharply pointed tip gets into corners perfectly, while the deeply rounded bowl scoops easily. While I carve several spoon designs, expect to see several more of these!