what do you know about wooden spoons the
kitchen utensil that you use to stir a
boiling pot of pasta or to mix chocolate
chips in with your favorite oatmeal
cookies most of you have used a spoon in
the last 24 hours and thought nothing of
it
it’s something we can easily take for
granted but the wooden spoon has an
interesting origin story and a rich
history the word spoon at its root means
shaving or chip of wood they were the
first known eating utensil and they
predate Forks by thousands of years
through the ages as we began to evolve
and cook our food spoons helped to lay
the foundations of civilizations and
they were eagerly adopted without the
type of controversy that the fork would
experience when it was first introduced
through the ages spoons have been used
for many purposes both practical and
symbolic elaborately carved wooden
spoons like this one have been found in
ancient Egyptian tombs and were thought
to be used for mixing cosmetic ointments
cosmetics that not only enhance their
beauty but protected their eyes from the
Sun and contained ingredients that
prevented eye infections during the
Greek and Roman Empire spoons made of
bronze and silver became the standard
among wealthy well the common folks most
often used wood because wood was readily
available and when necessary they could
carve their own at some point it became
customary to gift apostle spoons at a
baby’s christening this started a long
tradition of christening spoons that was
practiced through all classes in society
of course only the most wealthy could
afford gold and silver well the lower
class would use brass this is actually
where the saying comes from born with a
silver spoon in his mouth spoons were of
such great importance that they were
among the inventory of a person
immigrating and when someone died they
would will their spoon to the next of
kin then there were love spoons carved
by a suitor to gift to a young woman as
a symbol as
romantic intentions the spoon was also
meant to show the young man’s skill to
the girl’s father different symbols came
to have different specific meanings such
as a heart for love
a horseshoe for luck and a diamond for
wealth the enclosed balls in this spoon
are meant to symbolize the number of
children that they wish to have here’s a
photo of the love swing that I carved
for my boyfriend this past Valentine’s
Day in part to honor the history but in
part despite the history of the
tradition of the men giving them to
women because I’m an independent woman
so the symbols here are a heart for love
a wave for a future full of travel and
adventure a moon to the acknowledge the
many cycles our relationship will go
through and a crown because he’s a
prince I’ve carved about a hundred and
fifty spoons to date and though that
might not make me an expert I’m here
talking to you both them because I’m
passionate you don’t have to go very
deep into my Instagram account to see
that 80% of my feed is photos of spoons
photos like these ones well I’m sure
you’re probably curious how I got
started well I was given a jackknife
when I was just a kid because that’s
what parents in the country do they give
their children’s sharp things and tell
them to go away and play so I started to
wit a little things like wooden candles
and miniature canoes and around the same
time I started scheming my entry into
the craft market scene although I didn’t
yet know what I would be selling so if
you fast forward to last October I was
preparing for a Christmas market I’m now
a woodworker living the dream the shop
was a gong show though there’s at least
four other people in the same position
as me making stock for our biggest
markets of the year the machine used was
already limited and Murphy’s la being
what it was the power supply kept
failing I was losing my mind
and I needed to make a quick pivot so I
decided to find an unplugged solution
I had already been incorporating some
carving in
to my serving board designs that season
and the conversations I was having
around carving often turned to spoons
the truth is a lot of people have secret
fantasies about carving spoons and
they’ve watched enough YouTube tutorials
to become armchair professionals usually
these people know exactly what tools
they would use to hollow out the bowl
these are the tools that I use to carve
I start by drawing out my templates then
I clamp it down and hollow out the bowl
once I’m satisfied with that I take it
to the bandsaw and I rough out the shape
then I refine the shape of the back of
the bowl then I moved to the handle and
then I sand it once I’m done sanding and
I soak it so I can raise the wood grain
and then I sand it one more time and I
seal it this way when you’re using it
it’s not gonna be comfort
now if there aren’t any armchair spoon
Carver’s out there yet there will be
once you see this video so satisfying
isn’t it he’s using a hook knife here
and although this is the stuff of
fantasies once the fun’s over and you
realize you need to learn how to sharpen
that blade it very quickly becomes a
nightmare I wept over my tools and its
first learning how to sharpen them so
normally I like to go for more involved
projects but the way that these people
talked with such fascination about
spoons made me really tit it’s so simple
it’s universal everyone needs a wooden
spoon so I started scooping after I
finished the first few spoons I posted
photos on social media the response I
got was incredible same thing at the
market and by Christmas even my most
Awkward spoons were under someone’s tree
what a reputation wooden spoons have
today mothers wrath and mom’s home
cooking for some they can conjure up
traumatic memories from childhood
I think everyone’s heard a story of an
angry mother who’s broken a spoon over
their offsprings back ends I don’t want
to spend too much time on this because I
love wouldn’t
and I want you to as well but I think it
weren’t springing up wooden spoons were
the Disciplinary tool of the oppressed
stressed housewife these women who never
got respite from their daily household
chores and the unyielding needs of their
children she used the same spoon that in
a way was a symbol of her enslavement to
strike fear and deliver discipline to
youngsters who got on her nerves then
there’s a more fortunate folks for whom
the long handled wooden spoon holds fond
memories from childhood nostalgia for
family meals cooking together and
fellowship with her favorite people the
spoons in these stories are symbols of
sustenance
why are we so drawn to wooden spoons why
do they spark our imagination why do we
treasure them so much it’s not only the
memories that we have with them but the
material that they’re made with there
are plenty of machine made spoons out
there these days but the spoons that we
cherish the most are the ones that we
can tell are hand made when you can see
the marks that another humans hand is
left it tells a story it creates a
connection I think it’s safe to say that
most people making wooden spoons at
least in first world circumstances are
making them because of a deep drive and
devotion to creating something both
beautiful and useful passion enthusiasm
and obsession force us to keep creating
the story of my spoons is one of sweet
solitude carving spoons is like a
meditation to me it’s a form of stress
relief search the simple shallow dip and
a board that’s begging to be given a
purpose when I’m hand carving wood
I can’t will it to do what I want I have
to work within the limitations of my
media we’re wired to be interested in
wood an attractive primal aesthetic is
evident when we see wood grain wood was
one of the first materials that we used
as we transition from primitive beams to
creating a culture in a society
still today in modern home building we
use wood to frame and create structure
for our houses
we bring wood into the interior because
it warms the place up and it helps to
ground us by bringing something from
nature back inside if you were looking
at this wooden spoon and you picked it
up only to discover it was made of
plastic would you be disappointed it’s
somehow cheapens the object when we’re
tricked into thinking it’s made out of
something that it’s not what things are
made out of is important how they are
made is significant and who is making
them is meaningful thank you [Applause]
kitchen utensil that you use to stir a
boiling pot of pasta or to mix chocolate
chips in with your favorite oatmeal
cookies most of you have used a spoon in
the last 24 hours and thought nothing of
it
it’s something we can easily take for
granted but the wooden spoon has an
interesting origin story and a rich
history the word spoon at its root means
shaving or chip of wood they were the
first known eating utensil and they
predate Forks by thousands of years
through the ages as we began to evolve
and cook our food spoons helped to lay
the foundations of civilizations and
they were eagerly adopted without the
type of controversy that the fork would
experience when it was first introduced
through the ages spoons have been used
for many purposes both practical and
symbolic elaborately carved wooden
spoons like this one have been found in
ancient Egyptian tombs and were thought
to be used for mixing cosmetic ointments
cosmetics that not only enhance their
beauty but protected their eyes from the
Sun and contained ingredients that
prevented eye infections during the
Greek and Roman Empire spoons made of
bronze and silver became the standard
among wealthy well the common folks most
often used wood because wood was readily
available and when necessary they could
carve their own at some point it became
customary to gift apostle spoons at a
baby’s christening this started a long
tradition of christening spoons that was
practiced through all classes in society
of course only the most wealthy could
afford gold and silver well the lower
class would use brass this is actually
where the saying comes from born with a
silver spoon in his mouth spoons were of
such great importance that they were
among the inventory of a person
immigrating and when someone died they
would will their spoon to the next of
kin then there were love spoons carved
by a suitor to gift to a young woman as
a symbol as
romantic intentions the spoon was also
meant to show the young man’s skill to
the girl’s father different symbols came
to have different specific meanings such
as a heart for love
a horseshoe for luck and a diamond for
wealth the enclosed balls in this spoon
are meant to symbolize the number of
children that they wish to have here’s a
photo of the love swing that I carved
for my boyfriend this past Valentine’s
Day in part to honor the history but in
part despite the history of the
tradition of the men giving them to
women because I’m an independent woman
so the symbols here are a heart for love
a wave for a future full of travel and
adventure a moon to the acknowledge the
many cycles our relationship will go
through and a crown because he’s a
prince I’ve carved about a hundred and
fifty spoons to date and though that
might not make me an expert I’m here
talking to you both them because I’m
passionate you don’t have to go very
deep into my Instagram account to see
that 80% of my feed is photos of spoons
photos like these ones well I’m sure
you’re probably curious how I got
started well I was given a jackknife
when I was just a kid because that’s
what parents in the country do they give
their children’s sharp things and tell
them to go away and play so I started to
wit a little things like wooden candles
and miniature canoes and around the same
time I started scheming my entry into
the craft market scene although I didn’t
yet know what I would be selling so if
you fast forward to last October I was
preparing for a Christmas market I’m now
a woodworker living the dream the shop
was a gong show though there’s at least
four other people in the same position
as me making stock for our biggest
markets of the year the machine used was
already limited and Murphy’s la being
what it was the power supply kept
failing I was losing my mind
and I needed to make a quick pivot so I
decided to find an unplugged solution
I had already been incorporating some
carving in
to my serving board designs that season
and the conversations I was having
around carving often turned to spoons
the truth is a lot of people have secret
fantasies about carving spoons and
they’ve watched enough YouTube tutorials
to become armchair professionals usually
these people know exactly what tools
they would use to hollow out the bowl
these are the tools that I use to carve
I start by drawing out my templates then
I clamp it down and hollow out the bowl
once I’m satisfied with that I take it
to the bandsaw and I rough out the shape
then I refine the shape of the back of
the bowl then I moved to the handle and
then I sand it once I’m done sanding and
I soak it so I can raise the wood grain
and then I sand it one more time and I
seal it this way when you’re using it
it’s not gonna be comfort
now if there aren’t any armchair spoon
Carver’s out there yet there will be
once you see this video so satisfying
isn’t it he’s using a hook knife here
and although this is the stuff of
fantasies once the fun’s over and you
realize you need to learn how to sharpen
that blade it very quickly becomes a
nightmare I wept over my tools and its
first learning how to sharpen them so
normally I like to go for more involved
projects but the way that these people
talked with such fascination about
spoons made me really tit it’s so simple
it’s universal everyone needs a wooden
spoon so I started scooping after I
finished the first few spoons I posted
photos on social media the response I
got was incredible same thing at the
market and by Christmas even my most
Awkward spoons were under someone’s tree
what a reputation wooden spoons have
today mothers wrath and mom’s home
cooking for some they can conjure up
traumatic memories from childhood
I think everyone’s heard a story of an
angry mother who’s broken a spoon over
their offsprings back ends I don’t want
to spend too much time on this because I
love wouldn’t
and I want you to as well but I think it
weren’t springing up wooden spoons were
the Disciplinary tool of the oppressed
stressed housewife these women who never
got respite from their daily household
chores and the unyielding needs of their
children she used the same spoon that in
a way was a symbol of her enslavement to
strike fear and deliver discipline to
youngsters who got on her nerves then
there’s a more fortunate folks for whom
the long handled wooden spoon holds fond
memories from childhood nostalgia for
family meals cooking together and
fellowship with her favorite people the
spoons in these stories are symbols of
sustenance
why are we so drawn to wooden spoons why
do they spark our imagination why do we
treasure them so much it’s not only the
memories that we have with them but the
material that they’re made with there
are plenty of machine made spoons out
there these days but the spoons that we
cherish the most are the ones that we
can tell are hand made when you can see
the marks that another humans hand is
left it tells a story it creates a
connection I think it’s safe to say that
most people making wooden spoons at
least in first world circumstances are
making them because of a deep drive and
devotion to creating something both
beautiful and useful passion enthusiasm
and obsession force us to keep creating
the story of my spoons is one of sweet
solitude carving spoons is like a
meditation to me it’s a form of stress
relief search the simple shallow dip and
a board that’s begging to be given a
purpose when I’m hand carving wood
I can’t will it to do what I want I have
to work within the limitations of my
media we’re wired to be interested in
wood an attractive primal aesthetic is
evident when we see wood grain wood was
one of the first materials that we used
as we transition from primitive beams to
creating a culture in a society
still today in modern home building we
use wood to frame and create structure
for our houses
we bring wood into the interior because
it warms the place up and it helps to
ground us by bringing something from
nature back inside if you were looking
at this wooden spoon and you picked it
up only to discover it was made of
plastic would you be disappointed it’s
somehow cheapens the object when we’re
tricked into thinking it’s made out of
something that it’s not what things are
made out of is important how they are
made is significant and who is making
them is meaningful thank you [Applause]
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