Coming soon...

4 Spoons Today

I only managed 4 spoons today.

Getting to 50 is my next target.

I was quite pleased considering I had both my sons all day!

 

I like letting the spoons carve themselves.

I am sure many of you understand EXACTLY what I mean!

 

These are used everyday by the family,

so live next to the dining room table.

My favourite story about teaching my youngest to carve:

 

'Now you must not carve towards yourself,

I have told you already that is dangerous,

you might cut yourself!' I say to my 5 year old...

 

(he is carving with a frost laminated razor sharp knife)

 

'I know daddy, my thumb is already leaking' he says,

 

'Seriously?! Why did you not tell me?'

 

I investigate to find the wood and his hand covered in blood.

 

(Disclaimer - no children were permanently

injured in the making of this tale)

 



100 years old, 100 spoons to make....

My nan was 100 years old recently.

For some reason I then decided I would carve 100 spoons.

Some kind of celebration or punishment I am not sure.

 

My mum cut down one of her apple trees,

So they are all Apple or Birch.

Sometimes I see potential in the fire wood,

for that is where all my birch comes from!

 

 

I am up to about 40 at the moment...

I have decided doing them completely by axe, knife and spoon carving blade

is just being silly - so my Bandsaw has started to help me rough out now.

 

What medieval mentality had I slipped into?

I mean how else am I going to get them done?

It is nice carving with an axe mind you.

 

I suppose I like the idea that if you make 100 of something,

you really get to understand that object.

How many times have you made 100 of something?

 

I used to say I trained as a furniture maker,

I mean that is what I did at University,

but how many chairs have I made?

3 or 4 I think - lots of stools,

I wonder how many stools make a chair?

 

 

On a much deeper level, one beyond explanation perhaps,

where the feel of the flow of the tools and hands

is stored and shelved and used to judge

giving pleasure to simple things...

 

Both my boys have their breakfast with wooden spoons now,

they really did like those birthday presents,

while they don't use the others anymore...

 

3D Printing interlocking knot

It is so much easier prototyping with a 3D Printer.

This would probably take me 15 - 20 hrs if I carved it from solid.

 

 

Now you can press print and get on with something else...

I nearly forgot about this...

I was reminded recently that I used to write a blog.

I was waiting for a year to go by before I came back here....

 

But then I was surprised at how many views this blog gets.

So perhaps I should come back a little more often.

 

I started this for many reasons but it is a lovely record of what we make.

I have made so many things since I was here last.

 

To start off I will share a draft entry below - something I found unpublished:

 

 

 

Sometimes you reach a crossroads in your life.

Many roads can lead from the junction,

in my case recently I came to a T junction!

 

My path has now changed with being offered a new job.

This has been partly the reason for my absence of late,

the rigors of job interview preparation...

 

Looking through my blog over the last couple of years

I found this unpublished entry below,

which I found appropriate as I will be leaving

it behind when I leave my current school.

 

It was an honour to have this designed by an old friend Bill.

We never did have enough time working together.

But as a joint project we left this behind.

I am sure avid readers will realise how difficult this is to make.

No one else probably does.

 

 

Design and Technology Award

for Creativity and Innovation

 

 

In the making of this piece I tried to represent all the

material areas that we teach at school.

Man made board (4x12mm Plywood sections)

Hardwood (American Black Walnut)

Steel, rubber, plastic and even

electronics in the Memory stick...

 

So where have I been?

Well I have got a new job and it is brilliant.

So I am very happy designing and making new projects in a new school.