I came to spoon making through woodcarving, which has profoundly influenced the process. As a beginning carver, when it was suggested that I might like spoon carving, my unspoken response was “why would anyone carve spoons when there are so many other things that can be carved?” Then I made one. The process of making a spoon is very tactile. To make a good one, it is necessary that you hold it, run your fingers over it to feel the curve of the bowl and its thickness, and to feel how it fits in the hand. Sometimes, for the carver, it seems necessary to go to some else and say “hold this spoon and see how it feels!” I have been making spoons ever since!
As a carver, I started showing decorative spoons at carving shows, where the object was to present a beautiful spoon that gave aesthetic pleasure, even though the spoon itself would be purely decorative. Now that I am making functional spoons and related items that will actually be used in the kitchen, that emphasis on being beautiful remains a high priority. No one ever said a spoon has to be ugly just because it’s a tool. The second priority is that it fits nicely into the hand and “flows” with the user. One of my great pleasures is the reaction of someone who picks up one of my spoons and says “Oh, wow!” Let me introduce you to a world of “oh, wow” spoons.