Philippa Haydon, Treasure and Tool, the Hand Carved Wooden Spoon (ART & OBJECTS 2023)

Photos:

Northside Studio

MOTY 23 Pip Haydon Design Concept Treasure and Tool, The Hand Carved Wooden Spoon Designing and carving simple, inspiring wooden spoons to be used in the cooking, serving and eating of everyday meals is the aim. The spoons have deep curved bowl backs, straight bowl sides and handles. The shapes are designed to be more easily carved with hand tools in hard Australian timbers by middle aged hands. The shovel bowl shape is borrowed from a particular style of antique Swedish eating spoon. The dropped handle is similar to those on old Japanese ladles used for stirring and scooping the ingredients of miso and sake. As treasure and tool, I carve these spoons with the intention that they are put to work. Materials This collection is carved from green timber, some gifted, some collected from storm falls and street, park, farm and garden prunings. The timbers include silky oak, cherry, cherry ballart, weeping cherry, hawthorn, beech, paper bark, london plane, tulip poplar, elm and blackwood. Techniques The spoons are made using green wood spoon carving techniques. The green log or branch is froe split into billets. With the billet end up on a sturdy log block, the carving axe is used to shape the spoon blank. At this stage sloyd or straight knives are used for refining the shape of the handle and underside of the spoon bowl, the hook knife hollows out the bowl. Greenwood spoons are shaped handheld and quietly. Carved green to an almost finished stage, the spoons are then wrapped in cloth and left to dry over 3 or so days. A layer of finishing cuts, burnishing, carving the makers mark and two coats of tung and citrus oil oil complete the process. The Five Images 1-Treasure and Tool, a detail shot of the finished spoon pile, carved over late 2022 early 2023, there are cooking, baking, stirring, serving and eating spoons alongside flour scoops and long handled teaspoons in silky oak, cherry, cherry ballart, weeping cherry, hawthorn, beech, paper bark, london plane, tulip poplar, elm, blackwood 2-Swedish style eating spoon carved in hawthorn 3-Underside of the hawthorn eating spoon detailing the crank, tool mark facets and the keel at the neck that keeps strength in the weakest section 4-Bent Branch Serving Spoons in silky oak, blackwood and beech. The spoon with the hook knife ridges in the bowl is carved from a tangential cherry split pith side up, timber from an orchard pruning. 5- Spoons for enjoying at table, serving and eating in cherry, silky oak, weeping cherry and dutch elm.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.