Baguette Boards

Trying out a new, longer design for these two boards. The perfect size for baguettes or serving sandwiches. Always amazed at the beautiful lines found in the pieces after sanding and oiling. Dark, elegant walnut and a lighter, detailed spalted maple!

Whittling and Rasping

Shaping the cheeseboard handles is one of my favourite steps. I really want to stay away from a 'machined' look which I would get if I just used a router for the edges. Using the rasp and carving knife gives me an ability to narrow in on the handles and give some shape to the holes. This gives each piece it's own unique, hand carved look and feel.

Handmade

Enjoying slower days during this Christmas season. Sort of becoming a goal to fill my kitchen with all things handmade....wood, stone, clay, food! 

Spalted beauty and rugged walnut

A little bit of productivity here as we have a couple weeks off for Christmas break. The spalted maple turned out to be very interesting. The lines and knots keep me gazing at it now that it is all soft and smooth.

This new walnut board is another favourite. After the wood is sanded five times with a higher grit paper each time, it turns out silky smooth. An elegant wood. This one has a great little knot on one corner which reminds me that even though it is worthy to display fine cheese, it was recently a big old black walnut standing tall for years and years in a bush a few minutes down the road. Love that!

Walnut Cooking/Serving Spoon

A new design. This walnut spoon has a shallow, gouged bowl that would be perfect for stirring and cooking. It is smooth and shiny and would also look beautiful as a serving spoon. Walnut still sits at the top of my list of beautiful wood!

Rainy Day

Thrilled to begin work on a couple spalted maple cheeseboards today. Usually not crazy about rainy, grey days but lots of new boards stacked up and ready to work on! I will always love walnut but this wood is so lovely to look at.

Diamond in the Rough.

Another beautiful piece of wavy walnut this time cut into a square. I had high hopes for this piece and enjoyed working with a new shape...until I sanded it down and found a hard, white stone/mineral? embedded into the wood. My critics (family) suggest an end to the board at that time but I think it still has lots of potential. It reminds me of a large chunk of chocolate! Will be a nice serving or chopping board and I'll be packing it up for a friend shortly. :)

Spalted Maple

After a long while of hunting down spalted wood, we came in contact with a fellow who had some fresh cut spalted maple. Wood that is spalted has blackish, irregular lines running through it that is produced from rotting. It adds amazing character to pieces when carved! I need to let my new boards dry for a year or so but couldn't help carving out a scoop to see how it turned out.

This maple is still wet but unbelievably hard! I can't imagine how I'll get the knife through it in a year when it is dry...it might be turned into boards instead of spoons. :) I'll hang onto this scoop to see how it dries and make sure no cracks develop. A handy kitchen scoop to add to my collection!

The butter like curls of this wood are deceiving. Very strong!

Wood and Pottery...

....the perfect combination! 

(Long handled cherry serving spoon in Miller Lake Pottery bowl.)

Silky, Smooth Walnut

Freshly oiled walnut spoon ready to serve!

Before oil...

Handmade kitchen utensils and bowls are amazing to use. Our kitchen has been slowly filling up with great pottery pieces each year from the Miller Lake pottery shop, and hopefully, as my boys keep whittling away with me, we fill up our drawers with unique wooden pieces. Almost half of the spoons here are made by Ben and Jacob. :) 

Board Butter

Finally took some time to make a few board butter jars to bring to the studio. Wooden spoons and boards should be regularly treated with an oil or a beeswax/oil blend. Safe oils to use would be coconut oil or mineral oil but having something with beeswax in it is the nicest choice!  (Olive oil should not be used as it can go rancid.) This board butter recipe calls for a quarter pound of beeswax and a 16 oz jar of food grade mineral oil. The second benefit to using the butter is very smooth hands! 

Walnut waves

Found the prettiest 14 inches of walnut in the whole bunch.

November sun

I can't imagine a nicer November for someone who is not entirely fond of being cold...at all. Sanding on the front step in the full, warmish sun is so much nicer then sanding in the cold garage. Trying to make the process go a little quicker in order to get some boards ready for Christmas! I've been grateful to have Jason jigsaw out a bunch for me and do a rough router on the edges. I begin the first sanding and then hand rasp all the edges and handles to get them unique and smooth.

It's hard to get the boards finished at a quicker pace then one every two or three days but I am trying to get a number of these new ones finished for a Christmas open house at the cutest little studio in Camlachie. http://www.lakelifestudio.com 

These boards are all at a different stage....waiting for rasping, sanding and oiling. Then off to join a Christmas party somewhere with some special cheese, breads, meats and nuts. :) 

Sanding

Enjoyed most of yesterday morning with almost uninterrupted time sanding which was so refreshing... covered from head to toe in sawdust but still refreshing! Raw, un-oiled cherry and walnut roughly sanded and waiting for five more and a bath between each one. The hardest part is over though. :)

Cutting

I wasn't too disappointed to find a small crack in the bottom of this board as I was sanding it because that meant I could keep it for myself! We use this board almost every day for cheese and crackers as a bedtime snack or for holding toasted gouda sandwiches for lunch. I have been selling these boards as cheeseboards or bread boards and have advised folks to stay away from cutting on them...until I practice on one to try it out!

I have been cutting on this board with a serrated knife to see how it would hold up. So far what I have noticed is that the knife marks show for a time and then slowly seem to fade, or possibly pull up. I have recently read that using one side for cutting and the other side for serving can help make the boards more multi purpose and I love this idea. I don't think I would chop a raw chicken on them but cutting some veggies, cheese or bread with a sharp knife will be just fine. The more use the better! 

Cherry Serving Spoon

After spending the last few weeks carving little scoops, it's been nice to get back to a long handled cherry serving spoon. This is the longest one so far with a gentle curve to the handle which I love. Perfect for a serving up a large bowl of pasta or warm vegetables. These large spoons could also be used for stirring a large pot of soup or bubbling applesauce.

The humble beginnings of a spoon...