SPOON # 7 - Sunday 17th February

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, certainly not so early on in the project, but here I have, for your entertainment, a spoon of convenience. Having been away at EuroDisney for best part of the week, I haven't had time to make a new spoon, and so have had to go to the fire wood where I had discarded this particular spoon as a reject. I have finished it off and it doesn't look too bad, so why did I discard it in the first place?

I think it is actually a very nice shape, following the natural curve of the wood.

Well, it is a willow spoon, carved from a crook, or bent branch. Spoons made in this way are supposed to be preferable as the spoon follows the natural contours of the wood, so giving the spoon extra strength (though, unless you're planning to use your spoon as a tyre iron I'm not sure that using straight wood would mean your spoon being unservicably weak). I have not had much experience of crooks and was quite pleased with this one, until, as is so often the case, I discovered that the crook concealed a knot - the dirty great brown blob you can see in the centre of the bowl. I was so cross as I don't have the time or resources to carve pretty much a whole spoon, only to throw it away, and when the knot actually fell out, leaving a big hole, I knew I had no alternative.

However, as I had to post a spoon, and with necessity being the mother of invention (or botch jobs) I glued the knot back in and completed the spoon. As you can see, I have left it tooled and given it a slight up-sweep at the tip of the handle. Not my finest or proudest moment, but not a bad spoon in the end.