Spoon Carving - My Philosophy and process
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I began carving wooden spoons as a result of my work as a naturalist and my experience with art and photography. Initially, I tried to carve the wood to meet my own wishes, however, I have learned that each branch holds a different spoon within its shape. By training the eye to read the wood, my purpose as the woodcarver is to reveal the spoon that is hidden inside.
Each piece begins as a cut branch that is stored in a five-gallon bucket of water until it’s ready for carving. I begin by splitting the branch with an oak mallet and metal froe which follows the grain of the wood as it’s being split. After the bark is stripped, I roughly shape the spoon with both a carving and shingle hatchet. The spoon’s shape is further defined with a carving knife, while its bowl, is formed with a gouge and a hooked knife. Once finished, I set the spoons to dry inside a box of wood chips for four to six weeks. Final carving and hand sanding “cleans up” the spoon for the last stage, a hot immersion bath in food grade walnut oil lasting several days. This gives the spoon a warm, glowing finish. I prefer to use hand tools during my entire process as I feel this allows me to follow the wood’s natural growth in shaping a spoon. My work site is a wooden chair beside the wood stove where I carve on winter evenings with the dog lying nearby. I find a rhythm to the process that develops when working by hand that you can’t get with power tools. |
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Created from locally sourced wood, Eric D'Aleo makes these beautiful, hand carved spoons in New Hampshire, USA.
