Beech love

Very pleased with how beech looks all smooth and polished. The few boards that I picked up are narrow and work very well to keep a natural edge. 

After working as a landscape designer for many years I settled on a few favourite trees and the beech family sits right at the top of my list. Having a trunk that might remind you of an elephants leg is one of the ways to identify this majestic tree. Also, when you see a deciduous tree that has held on tight to it's dead, brown leaves all winter, you have probably seen a beech.

I would rather see the tree alive but if a beech has to come down, shouldn't it be carved it into a serving board? :)

Ready for a family gathering or a quiet night with a loved one. 

A serving board for cheese, nuts, fruit, crackers and meat! 

Beech board sits in the sun drying. After each sanding, the boards have a soak in hot water which causes the grain to lift, making the wood to feel fuzzy. After the final, high number sanding the wood is silky smooth and ready for oil.

 ~ Blessing this Easter weekend ~

Cookie Spatula

Taking a little spoon break to work on a cookie spatula design which has been on the list of things to try for some time. 

Some pictures of the finished piece. 

Spatula from  Board and Spoon

Linens from  Lost in Linen

~ Famous chocolate chip cookies from Gram ~

Junior Apprentices

I know I'll feel sad when Jacob grows tall enough to rasp a board in the vice without using the Little Tikes car. 

Ben and Jacob were the original 'whittlers' after they each received a jack knife and the book The Big Book Of Whittle Fun a couple years back. When they needed some help with their carving, I found myself not wanting to give their project back to them. Something about getting that shape right..I couldn't put it down! 

Moving forward a few years, I bought myself some new, shiny tools as I started to learn the spoon/board making process and how can you bring new, shiny tools into the house and not have two young men start begging to gouge out spoons and rasp boards! 

I wish I could say that I am always filled with fountains of patience and always happy to drop everything I am working on to give these two a hand. I might actually be striving for that but in reality, in my mind, carving was going to be my escape time. My 'I don't want to help any kids with anything' time. When you homeschool your crew and are blessed to spend most waking hours together, a part of you starts to need those 'hide in the basement' times in the day. 

However, without a doubt, my most worth while moments are the ones when I do put down what I am doing to give my boys a hand. 

And when I head to the basement with a few minutes to work on something and I turn to look at the workbench and think, "Terrific. There are my expensive gouges ordered from British Columbia spread all over the work bench hardly visible from all sawdust and wood shavings...everywhere..." I'll remember that it will feel like a blink and my two boys will be grown. So patience it! 

It really is a joy to see these guys want to learn this skill. I'll always cherish the moments of quietly sitting together in the 'studio' (unfinished basement) with one of them sanding or shaping out a knife or spoon. Not many things could be more valuable then that!

A few carvings from the Junior Apprentices...

Cherry board for serving fresh sage scones

This is the last board to come from the nicest, thickest piece of cherry found at a backyard mill in Sylvan. The board was finished right when the scones came out of the oven so we put it right to work! Certainly not planning to blog much about recipes because I am certainly not a cook but these turn out great every time and smell amazing. I've switched it up a bit from the the recipe found here: Fresh Sage Drop Scones

2 cups spelt or whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup minced green onions

2 tablespoons fresh herbs on hand or

2-3 teaspoons sage and apple stuffing seasoning mix from Epicure (yum!)

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Combine flour and next three ingredients. Stir in cheese , onions and herbs. Add milk and stir just until moist. (I needed to add a bit more flour so the dough was not too sticky.) Drop dough onto backing sheet 2 inches apart. (This makes 8 scones.) Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Cherry might appear a bit boring before it gets oiled but it is very beautiful after all the sanding is finished. 

Pure...plain and simple. Real. 

Maybe it would be good if we all tried to be a bit like sanded cherry!

Loose leaf tea spoon

No spoon should be limited to one single purpose but when I am designing a new shape, I try to think of a task that it will be best suited for. This little spoon/scoop is carved from a thick piece of cherry which helps me get a curved handle and a deep bowl. 

I was thinking of a tea or coffee scoop for this one and also have it measured out to two tablespoons.

When we plant herbs in the garden, watch them grow, weed them, cut them, dry them, and make tea mixes with them, we really need to reward all that effort by scooping them with something fine. Something to match all that effort. If your tea was not home grown in the backyard, family garden plot... it was by someone! 

~ Enjoy the simple pleasures of the day ~

A few things on the go

Trying to be productive before the beautiful weather calls me outside instead of to my carving knife. Here a few things that are on the go here at different stages. 

These two new long handled spoons in cherry and walnut have very shallow bowls making them useful for stirring and mixing. The little fellow is a cherry two tablespoon scoop with a curved handle. And happy to find another walnut board with a knot in the shape of a heart. ❤️

Sugar and spice

Sugar and spice and everything nice...

...that's what these little spoons are made for.

Hand chiseled bow tie joint

Bow tie joints (or butterfly joints) are a decorative way to repair or strengthen a piece of wood with a split. This is a very old, thick piece of cherry...incredibly beautiful with all its natural splitting and knots. To prevent it from splitting further, and to give it more stability, I added a bow tie inlay cut from walnut. 

Not going to pretend this was easy. 

I felt like I had climbed Mount Everest when I finally had it chiseled out and placed in. (A little obsessed to get it right since my first try at this on a board is now laying as ashes in the bottom of our wood stove.)

Walnut serving spoon/ladle

A few process pictures of a new long handled walnut serving spoon. 

This spoon was cut form a very thick piece of walnut. The profile is cut out first with an angle to the bowl which give enough depth for a curved handle.

Walnut curls!

Sanding in the early morning as the sun is coming up...but the kids are not. :)

Such humble beginnings. This is about the half way mark for this fellow. Knife and rasp marks making the shape with five sandings coming up. Such a long process but so rewarding to see the silky, smooth finished piece!