Carving Spoons
Welsh Love Spoons, Celtic Knots and Contemporary
Favourites
by Shirley Adler
Softcover
215 x 280mm
82pp
Published by Fox Chapel Publishing Co. Inc., East Petersburg PA USA
R.R.P.$29.90
ISBN 1-56523-227-5
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 121
While the Welsh are perhaps the best known for their carved love spoons, these wooden items were also made throughout Britain, and in Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Yugoslavia. The designs and traditions associated with them varied, but typically they were gifts made by a man for his betrothed or wife.
As a craft it almost died out with the introduction of machine made versions, but in recent times it has resurged in popularity. Today spoons are carved by men and women for fun and many are still given as gifts, often for special occasions.
Shirley Adler has a passion for carved spoons and shares it with readers in her book, Carving Spoons, now in its second edition with a total of 45 patterns.
While the more intricate spoons are skillfully carved, Shirley highly recommends spoon carving to novice carvers. As she states, you don't have to carve a person, animal, plant or other challenging design. So long as you have the spoon shape, you’ve carved something, and most people can carve a spoon.
Historical notes on Welsh Love Spoons and Scandinavian Spoon Making are provided by E J Tangerman and Harley Refsal respectively.
Shirley begins with the basic tools, materials and techniques for spoon making. Building on this information, she then describes in detail how to make your first spoon. This includes cutting the blank, setting the bowl depth, carving the bowl and handle, sanding and finishing.
Having made a relatively simple, though ornate, carved spoon, the book jumps to carving an intricate Welsh spoon with wooden chain links, caged balls and spiral decoration. It is unlikely that the novice would consider such an advanced design for the second attempt. However the spoon has different elements which can be incorporated in less challenging designs, while the carver builds up confidence.
These chapters are heavily illustrated with colour photographs and the carving work is covered almost step-by-step with pictures.
The rest of the book contains a gallery of finished spoons and line drawings of different spoon designs, graded as beginner, intermediate or advanced.
Photos: Colour
Contents
Foreward
The
History of Welsh Love Spoons
by EJ Tangerman
An
Introduction to Scandinavian Spoon Making
by Harley Refsal
Chapter One: Spoon Carving Basics
Chpater Two: Carving Your First Spoon
Chapter Three: Carving the Welsh Love Spoon
Chapter Four: Color Gallery of Carved Spoons
Chapter Five: Patterns Section