David Western's Portland Eisteddfod Lovespoon

Due to a surge of last minute entries for the West Coast Eisteddfod 2012 lovespoon, we couldn't get the tickets ready in time for a draw during the actual event on Saturday night. Sorry about this delay!!! To everybody who is waiting to see if they have won, we are going to hold the draw tomorrow in downtown Portland. We will be selecting a person from the lunchtime crowd (completely at random) to make the draw and will film it so that everyone knows the draw is completely above board!!!
So the good news is: YOU"RE STILL IN WITH A CHANCE!!!
Stay tuned for the blog tomorrow announcing the winner and hopefully showing some pics from the event!

Big congratulations go out to JANE BUCH of Florida who purchased her tickets at this year's North American Festival of Wales in Scranton P.A.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jane and thank everyone who contributed to the West Coast Eisteddfod. If you were not the lucky winner this year fear not, 2013 is just around the corner and we will be announcing new and exciting plans as the WCE goes into its fifth year.

Watch the draw happen here:

http://americymru.net/profiles/blog/show?id=2111712%3ABlogPost%3A298524#.UH4W7Hi4LHh

On a personal note, I would very much like to thank my carving partner Laura Jenkins Gorun who came along on an even crazier ride than the one we went on the last time we carved an Eisteddfod Spoon. Although it seemed like everything that could conspire against us did, we managed to pull off a beautiful spoon that I couldn't be more proud of!! I don't know if I'll be able to talk her into coming back for another round next year, but if I can...I guarantee that we'll come up with something even MORE spectacular!! We're on a roll!

I'd also like to thank Jen Delyth for her lovely, lovely 'tree of life' and Chris Chandler for coming up with our 'Celebrate Your Roots' theme! What a treat for Laura and I to work with artists from outside the lovespoon world and to see a project like this come together even though none of us have ever met in person.

Most of all, I would like to thank everyone who donated to the West Coast Eisteddfod!! Sorry that you couldn't all win but I hope that this year's spoon will have encouraged you to try again next year when we reveal the West Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon Mark 5!

Here's a shot of Chris Chandler burning down the house at the finale of the West Coast Eisteddfod 2012!

I love doing Celtic knotwork, so when a wonderful commission came my way with no boundaries attached, I really went for it!!
This is a leaping salmon with the splashing of water as it jumps rendered in Celtic knotwork fashion. Fish are MUCH harder to do than one would think and when you're trying to make them Celtic to boot, they get even tougher!! I wanted the fish's head to be instantly recognizable as a salmon, so I chose to show it as it would look returning to its spawning grounds, leaping the waterfalls and obstacles which stand in its way. I took more liberty with the body and tail,using the complex knotwork (which Celtic art has become so well known for) to create the fluid details of its fins and skeletal structure.
The waves and splashes were a completely different problem. Here I wanted the knotwork to appear fairly formal while still giving the effect of movement and some sense of the 'random' nature of water splashing around. Not an easy tightrope to balance on, but I think it worked out pretty much as I had hoped it would!
I placed the bowl on a bit of an angle to give it a more 'rocklike' appearance, symbolizing the obstacles the salmon has to overcome on its long journey. For those of you with eagle eyes, the tiny face beneath the salmon's tail represents an egg and the next generation of salmon to make the perilous voyage from stream to ocean and back to the stream again.
The wood I chose for this carving is a glorious piece of birch which displays the beautiful colours of 'spalting'. This colouration comes about when the wood begins its long process of decay, rotting back into the soil to become food for the next generation of trees. As well as lending the piece wonderful movement and colour, the spalting also hints at the cycle of life so aptly illustrated by the salmon.
Lovespoon purists may argue that this spoon isn't a lovespoon because it isn't festooned with the usual hearts and symbols of traditional spoons...I'm going to reply with a well considered, "Bollocks!"
This spoon speaks to tradition, to the ever continuing cycle of life and family and is reverential of the things which make our lives worth living...beauty, simple pleasures, the natural world and love.

So how's THAT for arty farty????

To be really effective, Celtic knotwork needs to be carved from both sides. That helps give it more depth and creates nice shadows when it's hung on the wall. So here's a view from the back. Get a load of that beautiful spalting in the bowl!! Woooohooo!!

One of the things I love to do when I design a lovespoon is to walk the 'Complex Simplicity' tightrope. For my tastes, my best lovespoons happen when I can marry simple, straightforward lines with a little bit of dazzle and have it all come out in a unified fashion. There's nothing new in that avenue of artistic exploration, but it never gets any easier to achieve! That is why I am so pleased with this spoon I carved a couple of months back. Every time I look at it, I get a feeling of great satisfaction that I managed to make it work exactly as I had hoped it would. I'm sure that there are legions of art critics out there who will tell me, "I shoulda done this" and "I shoulda done that", but for ME, it works and looks great! I love the shape of the bowl and the way it kicks back up toward the
handle to form half of an upside down heart shape, the tapering knotwork blends its complicated twists and turns beautifully with the fair curves of the handle and the reverse turn on the crown caps things off really nicely.It looks pretty easy, but believe me, it took a long time on paper before those simple lines looked 'just right'. A fraction of an inch either way and things became too fat or too thin, too long or too short....now I know why Goldilocks was such a fussy little so-and-so!!

Separate from the artistic exploration, I couldn't lose sight of the spoon's purpose...it is, first and formost, a lovespoon. I wanted a simple heart to send an unambiguous message of love but in a way that didn't render the design 'kitschy' or make the spoon a bit hokey. I chose to centre the heart at the middle of the top curve and to keep it very clean and straightforward. It commands the eye, but it doesn't detract from the rest of the design. I'm happy.

But here is my favourite part of the whole design! It's probably not the most dramatic or 'in your face' part of the spoon, but I love how everything converges in this one little spot just above the bowl. The lines are all clean but are very dramatic, they create tension but also resolve in a comfortable manner. OK, maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I find derive great pleasure from making these simple lines work out! Even the somewhat brittle birch wood cooperated and let me off without any chipping or tear-out!

Most spooncarvers, and I am no exception, design their spoons to be hung vertically on the wall. I have found it is always a good idea to look at the spoon from several angles though. Sometimes, the spoon doesn't look 'quite right' on the wall and it isn't until it is viewed horizontally or from the top down that imbalances appear which hamper the success of the design. For me, this spoon works equally well hung vertically or horizontally and lets me know that I've managed to balance everything as well as I can.
This might look a simple little spoon, but there's more going on than first meets the eye!!

I've just returned home from a short trip to Ohio where I had a number of excellent lovespoon related adventures! After several years of email communication and a couple of shared efforts on the West Coast Eisteddfod lovespoons, Laura Jenkins Gorun and I finally managed to meet in person! Not only that, Laura made the beautifully delicate lovespoon you see in the above photo for me and my wife! Wow! The spoon itself is carved from Buckeye wood (there is not a more appropriate wood for a lovespoon commemorating a visit to the Buckeye state than that!!!) and it features 2 elegant little rings which float along the handle at the bowl-end of the shaft. As with all of Laura's spoons, it is delicate, beautiful, meticulously rendered and chock-full of symbolism and meaning...I'm absolutely thrilled to bits to be its new owner!!

While I was visiting Laura at her studio, she was just putting the finishing touches to the lovespoon. Ensconced in her marvelous carving chair (which is much, much, much more practical and comfortable than the battered old wooden chair I use- note to self: get chair like Laura's!) Laura worked away at buffing up the already satin finish while we chatted about lovespoons, the Welsh in Ohio and where to get a really big hamburger in Columbus. While she worked, I couldn't help but notice her Mayan blue fingernail polish which seemed to perfectly set off the very feminine and elegant design of the spoon!

But the lovespoon wasn't the only thing Laura had arranged for my visit. She also set up an opportunity for me to speak to members of her Columbus Chippers carving group and some from the Welsh Society of Central Ohio about lovespoon tradition and history. The room came complete with a podium, microphone and slide show screen...all very high-tech stuff for a guy who sits at a little wooden bench all day using hand-tools to make his pieces! As you can see, I even wore a collar for the occasion! A wonderful crowd of people turned out to hear me (and no doubt to puzzle over my novelty moustache- long story) and it was an absolute pleasure to meet other carvers, fellow Welshmen and folks who were interested by the lovespoon!! Hopefully, I didn't get too carried away with the talking...once I get going about lovespoons, its sometimes hard to shut me back up again!

There was one more surprise for me at the end of the talk when fellow Welshman and lovespoon carver Chris Watkins came up to the front for a chat! Chris and Laura have shown their spoons at various shows over the years, but I had only been able to communicate with Chris by email up until then. Although I would have loved to have had a bit more time to talk about lovespoon history with Chris, I know that we'll be back to emailing fairly soon and I'm hoping that between us we can uncover more information on this centuries-old tradition!

Away from Columbus, I spent a lovely day with Jeanne Jones Jindra, the director of the Madog Centre (or 'Center' in American) for Welsh Studies in the small Southern Ohio town of Rio Grande. While there, I presented her with a little spoon as a token of my appreciation for her generous and very kind hosting. Jeanne showed me around some of the Welsh settlements of that area of Ohio and we had a nice visit to the little Welsh museum in the town of Oak Hill. The Welsh have always seemed to be the forgotten Celts in North America...everyone knows the Irish and the Scots...so it was fun for me to see a little museum dedicated to my lot for a change!!
I hope that one day soon I will be able to go back down to Ohio and do a bit more 'lovespooning' around the state, but until then, thank you to everyone who helped make my trip so very enjoyable!!

After yet another massacre of beautiful little children in the USA, it's pretty hard to come here and post. That kind of completely senseless and astonishing violence against society's most defenceless members makes it very hard to view the human race in any kind of positive light. In fact, it's pretty tempting to write the whole world off as a seriously deranged gong show and go hide in the quiet calm of my little studio.
I don't know why some people do what they do and I really don't understand the big deal about guns and owning them...but that is because I am a lovespoon carver. In my little world, people are happy, they're in love, they're proud of their families and they want to create something positive that they can share with others. It is the very polar opposite of the darkness which descended on that little elementary school in Connecticut yesterday.
I feel sickened by what I read in the news about this catastrophe and I feel helpless against the mindless violence and evil which seems to infest so many hearts these days...but my way to fight back against the horror of Connecticut is to make beauty.
So here here is my little memorial of 27 lovespoons to all those precious lives lost yesterday.

With this last post of the year, I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to read this blog! Thank you for your support and for enjoying the rather quirky tradition of lovespoons!
It's been a funny old year...some highs and a few lows, but lots of interesting lovespoons to carve and some really wonderful folks to carve them for!!
Although I can't show any of my most recent carvings until after Christmas, without risking the wrath of a few clients if I spoiled their surprises, I do have a really sweet Norwegian style anniversary spoon that was commissioned as a 50th anniversary present which I can show.

It's absolutely jam-packed with meaning and some wonderful symbols relating the family's history and was the result of a close collaboration with the clients. THIS is the kind of thing I really enjoy about lovespoon carving...when I can work with my clients and fill the design with loads of symbolism which is important and relevant to them! I've said it before, and I'll say it again...try to make a plasma tv or an 'out of the box' diamond ring do THAT!!

Here's what this spoon 'says': A gift to their parents from 3 loving and devoted children, the spoon is crowned by an anchor symbolizing their father's love of the sea. The anchor is linked to the handle of the spoon by 3 Norwegian style links, each engraved with each of the children's initials. The last link joins the handle through a diamond (rather than as a symbol of monetary prosperity, the diamond is used here to symbolize the kind of wealth which comes from a close and loving family) on which a book is opened and engraved with the Mother and Father's names. The Mum is a writer and the book symbolizes her passion.

Just below the diamond, the handle widens out to include a lovely 5 point flower with 5 hearts. These represent the 5 decades of marriage, with the circular pattern representing the eternity of love (a circle having no beginning or end).
There are 8 grandchildren in the family and each one is represented by a flower in the little bouquet toward the bottom of the handle. Flowers represent growth and renewal and are a lovely symbol for the idea of the growing family.
At the very bottom of the handle, a heart in two halves is united into a single heart to represent the idea of 'we two are as one'.
The spoon bowl is rather broader than is found on Welsh spoons, but is commonly found on Norwegian and Swedish spoons. The spoon is carved from a lovely piece of birch which is the favoured wood for carving in Norway and which lends some 'authenticity' to the piece!

You really couldn't find a better representation of what lovespoons are all about than the idea of 3 generations of the same family being united for posterity in a beautiful lovespoon! Beat THAT Mr. DeBeers!!! Ha!!

I wish everyone a most joyous and festive Christmas and New Year and look I look forward to sharing more carving adventures in 2013.

I know that it seems unseemly close to the end of Christmas, but if you are one of those romantic folks who desires something a bit more special than the old bog-standard overpriced wilting roses or boxed chocolates, its time to get your lovespoon order in!
I make these beauties completely by hand and that takes time...sometimes a LOT of time!! So, while I greatly appreciate any and all orders I receive, the ones which come in on the evening of February 13 generally go away empty-handed and disappointed.
Glory comes to the decisive!!
You really can't do better than a hand-crafted lovespoon if you are looking for a Valentine's gift which truly says, "I love you".

It doesn't have to be over-the-top, but being a bit sentimental never hurts at this time of the year!! A well designed and crafted lovespoon allows you to let your heart run riot while keeping your dignity intact. There is literally no end to the ideas which can be conveyed through this beautiful medium...the only limit is your imagination (and your budget, if I am brutally honest).
Whether you are a traditionalist and like to see your lovespoons reflect a more conservative taste (as in the pair of spoons shown below) or whether you like to go 'out there' a bit and be a bit more freewheeling (as with the Stylized Heron spoon shown to the right) I can help you realize your vision.
Valentine's Day is a day for passion and lovespoons get the job done!!

So while I apologize for not giving you any breathing room between Christmas and Valentines Day, you will thank me when your custom designed and hand-made lovespoon is reaping the credits and you are the star of the day!!
Then you too could be tangoing into the sunset like the lovely couple below!!

This year I used the quiet time between Christmas and Valentine's Day to carve some lovespoons for the 'last minute' Valentine's romantics. For the most part, I have kept the designs pretty traditional, although there are a couple of nice Celtic ones in the mix as well! If you want to give your sweetie something really nice that is hand made and VERY romantic, you won't do better than this. With prices ranging from 30 to 300 dollars, you won't break the bank and you'll be a total STAR!!

Simple Traditional style lovespoons (from left to right) Long twin heart spoon in mahogany 30 USD Long twin heart spoon in maple 30 USD Traditional hearts and circles in birch 40 USD Traditional hearts and circles in cherry 40 USD Small romantic panel spoon in spalted maple 45 USD

More complex designs (from left to right) Long twin heart spoon with curved handle in birch 65 USD Elegant tradition fretted in broadleaf maple 65 USD Elegant traditional fretted in Pacific yew 80 USD Traditional style square panel in broadleaf maple 85 USD

3 lovely traditional panel style Welsh lovespoons Left) Crossed spades indicates a willingness to work and provide . Traditional symbols hearts (love), diamonds (prosperity) key-hole (you hold the key to my heart, commas (soul symbols) circular pattern (eternal love) carved from birch 150 USD Centre) Eternal circle with hearts indicating eternal love. This spoon could be further personalized with the addition of initials/dates etc. 100 USD Right) Celtic heart spoon with circle of soul symbols and a graceful Celtic eternal ring surrounding a heart. Lots of romance going on here! Basswood 200 USD

Miscellaneous styles in a variety of woods (left to right) Traditional long fretted spoon in Pacific yew. 100 USD Elaborate Celtic knot with a raised heart in cherry 250 USD Panel spoon with Celtic eternal ring and lots of room for personalizing! 175 USD Modern Celtic knot with crescent moon shaped bowl. Carved from birch 250 USD.

Celtic Cinnamon Buns. This romantic Celtic swirl design is carved from recycled old growth Douglas Fir milled from old bridge timbers. The arrow straight grain of the fir sets off the sweeping curves of the Celtic knotwork perfectly. This is a spoon for a real romantic!! 300 USD I've said it before and I'll say it again; if you can find a toaster, plasma tv or box of chocolates ANYWHERE that comes even remotely close to the romance of one of my lovespoons, I'll lay down my tools and never cut another chip!!!!! If you'd like to order one of these beautiful little spoons please email me at: lovespoons@shaw.ca

There's an old expression which says you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. A great saying, but when it comes to lovespoons and bits of unwanted wood, sometimes that's exactly what a carver CAN do!! Here's your proof! Knowing I was going to be spending time sitting in long ferry line-ups over the Christmas holiday, I grabbed my knife and an offcut of maple from a firewood box by the back door. Normally, I stew behind the wheel of my immobile car, gradually working myself into an apoplectic lather over having to waste my life in a ferry parking lot (and I calculate I have probably spent a year or two of my brief allotted time on this earth doing just that)but armed with my little carving knife, a bit of wood and my overactive imagination, I can make the time fly by in a pleasurable (and occasionally profitable)way. The scrap maple I grabbed as I flew out the door happened to be fairly long and narrow, so I decided to have a bash at a cage with a pile of balls. In retrospect, I probably could have fit a few more into the space available, but I wanted plenty of room for the knife, so I went with what you see. I managed to get quite a bit of the carving done at the ferry and then in the odd quiet moment over the Christmas holidays, but it wasn't until today that I decided to finish it off. Granted, it's not the most interesting or exciting spoon I've ever done, but it has a certain charm. I'm especially pleased with the long, narrow bowl and think I might try a few more like that. The balls in cage detail came out fairly well too, given that I was hacking away in the car and at the kitchen table for most of it!!

And since I am on a recycle and reuse kick at the moment, here's a nice little Valentine's spoon carved from an unusual bit of wood that came out of some wood packing around a commercial freezer. I get bits and pieces of wood from some pretty crazy places, but I figure as long as they are clean, they look good and I can carve them without them falling to bits, then they are worth using! Again, this is a pretty simple little 'whittled' spoon, but it's pretty cute and I really like the wood...whatever it is?

Speaking of Valentine's Day; you've still got a weeny bit of time to get a lovespoon in time for the big day (at least you do if you live in Canada or the US!) This little one is only 45 dollars + postage!!

Its nearly Valentine's Day...that most perfect time of the year for the lovespoon to really shine! I won't bang on about it, but if you think your poxy bouquet of over-priced flowers or tacky boxed chocs is ever going to come anywhere near to THIS kind of romance, think again!!! Alas, unless you live in BC, you're too late for this year, but I guarantee that one of my hand-carved lovespoons is always the way to score a big bullseye when you want to be a REAL romantic. If you missed out this year, get on the list for next! It's never too early to start planning when you are creating something as beautiful and poignant as a lovespoon! To show you what you missed out on being able to give to your sweetie AND to inspire you for your own lovespoon, here's a little gallery of romantic 'moments' from some of my lovespoons.

Things don't have to become overly complicated to make sure a romantic message really gets across. These heart links pretty much say it all!

Two bowls joined together say, "We two are as one". Beat THAT with a toaster!!

"Cariad" says sweetheart in Welsh...but you don't have to be Welsh to be romantic (although it certainly helps). Say it in French, Mandarin, Farsi or even in English; everyone likes receiving a love note!

Ahhh, lovespoons are definitely "Muy bueno!!" Still prefer 'Pot of Gold'?....

then I can't help you!!! But if you want to say something really meaningful through a beautiful, one-of-a-kind artwork which comes backed by centuries of tradition, then I'm the guy to help you out!

It's Valentine's Day and those who had their acts together are rolling in the clover today! I couldn't give the game away by showing any Valentine's commissions before today, but I'm very excited to show a little selection of the wonderful spoons I was fortunate to carve for some really thoughtful and very romantic clients!! I'm particularly taken with this first one...especially since it feature's the famous Liver Bird, the symbol of Liverpool and more important, Liverpool FC!! A gift from a woman to a man, this spoon is a bit more 'masculine' but still retains a lot of romantic imagery which is personal to the couple. I love it! This is a spoon which truly says, "You'll Never Walk Alone!"

This design really works for Valentine's, even if it isn't awash in lovey-dovey stuff. I think the elegant heart-shaped bowl and the heart link say everything that needs saying romance-wise and the endless Celtic knot of the handle is a perfect metaphor for 'eternal love'. Simple, elegant and beautiful...just like a Valentine's romance should be!

I know I just showed off the Celtic Flower a few posts back, but I absolutely love this spoon! It isn't too flamboyant, but it IS a wonderful and evocative spoon....and best of all; it will never wilt! It's the Valentine's Day gift that will keep on giving forever! Now that Valentine's Day has arrived and the rush is over, I'll start focussing a bit more on this year's Eisteddfod spoon. It's year 5 for both the Eisteddfod and the annual raffle lovespoon which helps raise needed funds to support the event. Laura Jenkins Gorun is on board again this year and we are currently plotting this year's lovespoon adventure. We are thrashing out some ideas and are pretty jazzed at some of the crazy stuff we've been coming up with! This year's spoon will definitely be another step forward in our continuing exploration of lovespoon design! Hold on to your hats, but let go of your wallets! You'll want to buy some tickets for THIS one!!

Although most of my lovespoons tend to feature the famous Celtic knotwork of the British Insular period, I have recently started paying more attention to the Celtic art of other European regions and time frames. It has dawned on me that there is a LOT of great Celtic art which goes overlooked because of the fascination with 'Book of Kells' type knotwork. There can be little doubt that the ancient Celts were masters of design and their handling of space and abstract form is second to none. It would probably take a lifetime to learn even a fraction of the skills those early bronze and iron age masters possessed and another to learn ways to transfer the techniques and designs to wood, but every now and then I take a crack at it. This spoon is one of those attempts!

It features a number of details less commonly seen on modern 'Celtic' woodcarvings, such as sweeping foliage, the beautiful Celtic 'swirls' found on paper and metal art and a much looser and more flowing Celtic knot pattern. The foliage has an almost medieval feel to it with the pointed treble leaves, but the sweep of the knotwork definitely gives the piece a Celtic 'feel'.

The varied thickness of the knotwork gives the spoon an organic plant-like feel. Although it is as rigidly controlled as any Celtic 'over and under' type pattern, it possesses a more open and easier going feel. The little stylized heart at the bottom of the knot is a romantic touch which indicates that this is a lovespoon...the solid heart beneath it leaves no doubt!

I have a soft spot for double bowls on my lovespoons. I enjoy the effect they create and I find them very romantic. Their use as a symbol of 'two becoming one' is perfectly apt for a lovespoon and I just never get tired of playing with the arrangement of their relationship to one another. The little berries make a wonderful contrast to the pointy leaves and also hint at the notion of fertility and life's renewal...another popular theme on traditional lovespoons. I'm very pleased with this elegant little spoon. The wonderful amber tone of the red alder I used to carve it, lends the spoon a rich feel and the gentle dome of the handle makes the spoon feel (and look) very light when in the hand or hung on the wall.

Happy St. David's Day!!

Today is the day Welshmen like myself celebrate our patron saint and all things Welsh! Although we Welsh go almost unnoticed against our more visible Scottish and Irish cousins, we do have a few things to offer the world. Not the least of these is the vibrant and beautifully romantic lovespoon. As a Welshman blessed with an ability to carve these wonderfully poignant tokens of love, I feel it my responsibility to make each and every one of my spoons a worthy champion of the tradition! Even when I carving a very simple design such as this little Welsh dragon and the Welsh word for sweetheart, 'cariad'; I believe that I have a duty to my traditions and Welsh people past, present and future to make my spoons the most elegant and lovely I can.

I'm very proud to be Welsh and I'm even prouder that I can carve lovespoons which bring pleasure and joy to my clients!! On this day of the Welsh, I give thanks for this rich tradition and for everyone who appreciates it!

It's not every day of the week I get a commission to carve a lovespoon celebrating both Wiccan and Odinist religions and the brief which accompanied this particular order was chock-a-block with interesting and exciting ideas. I confess, I know very little about Wicca or Odinism, so I had to do a bit of reading before I got carried away with the pencil. It's VERY easy to make mistakes or cause inadvertent insult when designing outside a comfortable frame of reference and the very last thing I would ever want to do is be at all demeaning or insulting toward my clients. So with that in mind, I spent a lot of time making sure that my rendition of my client's ideas would be accurate and something they would enjoy.
Important to my client, was the idea of Thor's Hammer and due to it's rather commanding shape, we felt it would make a very dramatic bowl for our spoon with it's handle merging up into the handle section of the spoon. I studied dozens of drawings and versions of Thor's Hammer before settling on this very cool pointed version. With the bowl centred over top of a particularly vibrant section of spalted figure, there was no doubt it would be eye-catching!

A nice pair of Celtic knots symbolize eternity and the notion of eternal love and give some flair to what could have been an unwieldy and heavy section of the design. The initials of family members are all rendered in a Wiccan font at the top of the hammer's handle, each in its own love heart. I REALLY love the effect a bit of spalting can make and even though it is a bit of a nightmare to carve cleanly, I think the result is always more than worth the effort! Overall, the hammer has a powerful presence (as a hammer belonging to Thor should!) but it is also pretty damned stylish in a masculine kind of way.

I had a great time with the middle section of the spoon. Although it is by no means the flashiest section of the design, I had a lot of fun coming up with some runic symbols that were significant to the family and wrestling to carve the pentacle in a particularly punky section of spalted wood which threatened to crumble away on me at the slightest wrong touch! There are little Wiccan and Odinist symbols tucked away throughout this spoon and the little one at the top of this picture was another challenge to cut cleanly in the highly figured wood.

The spoon is crowned by a raven and a dragon who form a stylized heart-shape and envelope a Celtic knotwork 'tree of life'. I wanted the dragon to have a Nordic feel to it and for it to be evocative of the prows of Viking longboats...maybe Thor's own boat would have a dragon like this guiding the way.
I got lucky with a sweet section of spalting which appeared as I rounded the raven's shoulders. I love the way it makes the wing look like it is moving as the spoon is moved under light.

This spoon certainly presented me with some challenges both in getting to grips with the design AND with carving through some of that spalted figure, but I am very fond of Thor's mighty hammer!!

I do the vast majority of my work to commission order, so for me, nothing is sweeter than repeat custom. To properly carve a lovespoon necessitates a certain level of involvement with my clients and I am often privy to deeply personal details about their lives. Considering that we seldom meet in person and I rarely even see a photo of them, it is always remarkable how well the spoons ultimately tell their stories!

So when I get a repeat customer, it is particularly exciting; both because it affirms for me that I 'got it right' the first time around and because it often gives me an opportunity to explore different aspects of their lives and relationships.

Such is the case with this beautiful stylized Orca which I carved for a wonderful couple who were back for their FOURTH (!!!!!) spoon!! Their story could easily be the stuff of a great romantic novel and maybe one day I'll get their permission to tell it along with showing the four spoons, but for now, I'll concentrate on this most recent design.

A departure from the traditional notion of a lovespoon as messenger with its symbols telling a romantic story, this spoon is more about ideas and feelings. There are still a number of symbolic details (such as the closed Celtic knots which symbolize eternity, the sneaky stylized heart between the whales tail fins and the fins as double bowls indicating 'we two are as one') but the idea of this spoon was to capture something of the beautiful 'feel' of the couple's romance.

Now when you get talking about something as difficult to define or pin-down as 'the feel of a romance', you can get into some deep and murky waters! But this leaping Orca seemed to capture it somehow.
Whether it is the freedom, the raw power or the sheer beauty implied by the whale or just the way the elegant sweep of it's body enfolds the 'water' knot....something made both my clients and myself feel this design was 'right'.

Of course, we might all be kidding ourselves and its just a really nice looking whale that makes us feel good....but that's ok too.

I was recently sent this photograph taken at the Miami Valley Woodcarvers show in Middleton Ohio. Those of you familiar with my spoons will recognize a number of my designs in this shot as well as designs from Mike Davies, Laura Jenkins Gorun, Alun Davies, Sion Llewellyn and others. None of these spoons has been carved by me or any other of the aforementioned lovespoon carvers.
You may also note that nowhere is any credit given to any of us for our designs. This is a big problem in the world of carving and is one that never ceases to disappoint me. I'm flattered when someone likes one of my designs enough to try carving it....but when it is shown or sold and I am left uncredited, then my pleasure sours and I can't help but take offence.

To add insult to injury, the blue ribbon winning spoon on the back wall is also one of mine. Now normally when you enter carvings in competitions, there is an expectation that it is your own work... and that should include the design of the piece. Likely, the carver of this award winning spoon would argue that because he changed a detail or two at the crown, the design is now original. I would argue that is akin to me recording ReBEL, ReBEL and arguing it is no longer David Bowie's classic hit REbel REbel because I have added my own personal emphatic touch.

I work very HARD to create my designs and as a reward for my hard work, I earn an income so modest that your average Walmart greeter would turn his nose up in disgust. To see others presenting my work as though it were their own robs me of even enjoying the pleasure of being properly credited as the creator of a design! It is disrespectful, hurtful and more than a little disappointing.

Here's another picture from the same show. As you can see, I'm everywhere yet nowhere. It's a little bit upsetting!
But saddened as I am, I still have to laugh that I can win a woodcarving blue ribbon without even sending in my work!!

The vast majority of the time, the carving community is chock-full of welcoming, warm-hearted people who love to share their passion. Unfortunately, there is sometimes a bit of a blurred line between sharing a passion and taking a liberty. I really do hope that whoever has carved these spoons just doesn't understand what this kind of appropriation of designs means. Maybe in future, I'll get acknowledged for my design work and maybe even get a share of the ribbons!!!

In case you'd like to see my humble little version of this 'award winning design', here it is below:
(And by the way, the little hummingbird at the top of the blue ribbon spoon comes from yet ANOTHER one of my designs)

The original

Last week I posted pictures of some copies of my lovespoons carved by a gentleman in the United States. Almost immediately, I received an email from one of my repeat clients who was pretty miffed that she had spotted 'her lovespoon', a design she and I had spent a lot of time creating in amongst the collection of 'knock-offs'.
While I was pretty upset that my design had been used without my permission (and without any type of acknowledgement of me as the designer and rightful owner of the copyright) to win a carving competition, my client was upset for a different and more important reason.
She pointed out that the spoon we had created with much thought, attention and love was, in the copy version, nothing but an empty vessel...meaningless as a lovespoon.

Over the next few days I have stumbled around trying to find a good way to explain what she meant in a way that is not too airy- fairy and philosophical. Fortunately, a conversation with my father (who is a marvellous painter and was for many years an art teacher) gave me the straightforward answer.

He pointed out that the two key words to keep in mind when examining art are 'content' and 'intent'.

With the two spoons shown here, we can see that both share a very similar content. Both are carved from a similar wood species, both share the same design (bar the small modification at the top of the copy spoon-which was tacked on from another one of my designs) and both have similar features within the design. In both you can see the sweeping stem of the heart-shaped bowl, an identical layout of leaves, grapes, hearts and a star. Both have a raven with a globe in its beak on the spoon bowl, both share a hummingbird on the stem etc., etc.. They even share a similar 'swirl' pattern. THIS is the content of the spoon.

The copy

But it is with the INTENT of the spoon that we move into a completely different territory and the two spoons become immediately separated. We are now exploring the WHY of the spoon; the reason the spoon was created and exists. The original spoon is one of a trio (shown together below) commissioned by a father for his three children as a way for him to celebrate their lives and memorialize their recently departed mother. The spoons were designed as a unified 'piece', but one which was meant to be displayed in three different households. Like siblings, the spoons are similar but different. While each spoon is unique, within each appear a number of identical and carefully considered symbols.
Every leaf, grape and heart has a purpose...each symbolize a person or idea significant to the family and to each individual sibling. Each of the three siblings is represented by a distinct animal which appears at the crown of their spoon in large form. The animals also appear on each of the other two spoons in smaller form to indicate the family tie and the unity of the 3 children. If an animal was missing from a spoon, the design would be ruined. There is no area of any of the spoon which hasn't been very thoroughly thought out.

My version of the spoon is full of artistic and personal intentions and even though the spoon still makes an attractive piece without an understanding of these intentions; knowing the reason for its existence and the meaning of its design message makes it into both a lovespoon and a work of art.

The copier, however, knows none of the reasons for these elements and why they are there and he experiences none of the emotion generated by that knowledge. There is no art involved in the copy piece...it is simply a technical exercise...a beautiful stick.

For me as an artist and carver, the intent and content of my spoons are equally critical. When one is missing the spoon is no longer a lovespoon. This is one of the main reasons I always urge my students and fellow carvers to design their own spoons once they have become comfortable with the technical aspects of woodcarving. The MEANING is what truly makes the spoon!!!

Trio celebrates 3 siblings and memorializes their mother

I spend a lot of my time carving really complicated Celtic knotwork, over-the-top foliage and lots of crazy stuff that helps make my lovespoons nice and unique.

However, I also love to make really simple spoons that stretch me to 'do a lot with a little'. During my recent visit with fellow lovespoon carver Laura Jenkins Gorun down in Ohio, Laura presented me with a selection of buckeye boards which were small enough to cram into my hand-luggage for the flight home.
Up until then, I had only known of buckeyes as those tasty, tasty little chocolate and peanut butter orbs which share the same name as the tree...in fact, I thought that is why they called Ohio the Buckeye State!! After all, who would nickname a state after a tree when there is a sweet chocolate confection out there demanding recognition!!
Chocolate aside, I finally had a crack at carving a piece and this lovely little spoon is the result. Based on a Norwegian design, I managed to squeeze the design onto the smallest of the pieces Laura had given me and even got it to line up so that the bowl landed right on top of a gloriously figured section.
The 'tiger-stripe' figure gives the bowl some real visual drama, but it is a nightmare to carve wood which has such interlocked grain. Although I am not a big fan of sandpaper, it turned out to be the saving grace in getting a nice, fair and smooth surface throughout the bowl.
The buckeye is a pleasing yellow tone and is very light and delicate. Carving it was a dream in all the areas that weren't figured and it seemed to accept the knife without too many complaints (unlike cherry, walnut and poplar).
The simple design is nicely 'old school' and very romantic. With a few decades of handling, the finish will get a beautiful patina and that figuring will glimmer like northern lights!!
It might not taste as good as a chocolate buckeye, but it will last longer and is completely non-fattening!
How sweet is THAT??

I'm blogging about this very simple traditionally styled Welsh lovespoon because the young man who commissioned it got it right!!

Although the budget was modest and the design pretty restrained, I love everything about this spoon; and here's why:

The young man is a Canadian marrying a Welsh girl. He made the effort to look up some Welsh traditions and came across the lovespoon. Although not a carver, he did some more research and came across my website (so double bonus points there!!) whereupon, he commissioned me to help him realize his wish of presenting his wife to be with this beautiful reminder of her Welsh roots and his love for her. THAT'S all good stuff!

He wanted the spoon to have a traditional feel and so we opted for a lovely 'panel' style spoon with a broad, squarish panel and a nice swan neck stem leading to the elegant bowl. Chosing this style of spoon also gave me the opportunity to include one of the most beautiful circular motifs I have ever come across. I'd love to be able to take credit for this evocative 'tree of live' pattern with its wonderfully stylized branches and the elegant hearts which form the tree's trunk....alas, this was the creation of a clever Welsh carver whose name has been lost to the mists of time. Although I made a couple of simple modifications, the design's feeling is intact and its beauty is there for all to see.

Simple beauty which is the hallmark of real Welsh lovespoon carving

Throughout the rest of the handle are included a number of simple but poignant symbols traditional to the art of lovespoon carving. The keyhole pattern suggests the young woman holds the key to the young man's heart, the lovely comma shapes indicate the soul (for longwinded and quirky reasons that only the Welsh could come up with) and the diamonds indicate a wish for prosperity. The couple's initials add a further personal flourish to the detailing.
The really unique detail is the orca and lobster motif. With one half of the couple coming from the East Coast of Canada and the other from the West, no two things could more perfectly symbolize that than the Nova Scotia lobster and the West Coast Orca. Although the detailing had to be kept pretty simple, these simple symbols pack a LOT of meaning for the happy couple and that is how it should be!

Though simply rendered, these details pack a lot of meaning!

As I referred to in a previous blog, it is this merging of content and intent which really make a lovespoon come to life. Without meaning, the spoon is simply a pretty carving....and this lovely little spoon is much more than simply a pretty carving!

Spoon Draw Coming!!

We Have A Winner!!!

Leaping Salmon

Complex Simplicity

Lovespoons in Ohio

Lovespoons on a dark day

Nadolig Llawen!!!

Valentine's Day is coming!!!

Valentine's Day Bouquets

A Silk Purse From a Sow's Ear

A Perfect Time for Lovespoons

Happy Valentine's Day

A New Old Celtic

Happy St. David's Day

Happy St. David's Day!!

Thor's Hammer

Four's the Charm!

I won a carving contest.....kinda

Content and Intent; an explanation

Simple Beauty

The Right Stuff