Kindling...

Sigh.

I learned a lesson the hard way recently. And am less likely to have to 'relearn' this one.

Recently spent a couple days with John 'demoing' spoon making at the Penshurst Place Craft Show. We went over Friday afternoon to set up the tent and bring all the big things.

Yes, that actually says 'John Walker', which I thought was funny. It gave me opportunity for yet another nickname.

John Walker, Texas Ranger.

We brought plenty of spoons and spatulas and ash burr bowls to sell along with other products including: various types of hurdles, woven willow flowers, baskets, hazel walking sticks, an obelisk (that I made!!), two types of chairs and pea sticks.

After we got the tent up and the shave horses, chopping blocks and logs unloaded from the truck under cover, John made a couple pea stick plant supports, which was fun to watch. I've been cutting, stacking, bundling and delivering pea sticks all this time, but had never seen what to do with them!

(oh! behind the peastick creation JW is working on you can see a few things on the ground... that's a couple hurdles John made and an obelisk... I made that!)

Then it was back to the shop to load up all the rest of the goods.

Sadly, I failed miserably in picture taking for the rest of the weekend.

Not one single photo.

But, I was busy making spoons, as was John. My first spoon of the weekend... along with a spatula!

Spoon number two below...sort of a failure, except not really because I learned that knots are a no no. They totally mess up the grain of the wood making it very, very difficult to carve against the grain... because it is going in various directions. There is a knot on the bottom side of this spoon, right where the bowl meets the handle. Originally, the handle was longer too. It was one of those things when a person has to know when to stop, and I didn't. Until I suddenly realized I'd gone deeper with one pass of the draw knife than I intended and had shaved too much off.

Oh well. Still a usable spoon.

John, this whole time is making 5 or 6 spoons to my one. And his spoons are really, really creatively carved. Nice shapes and sizes. On the last day he started making spoons with a hanging hook at the end of the handle. They are awesome! I tried to make a similar one, and ended up with what I felt was going to be my best one yet.

see that hook at the top of the handle?!

All that remained to do was carve out the bowl of the spoon...

Ok. So. Backstory. All weekend John had his spoons lying on the floor, drying, but was very, very careful to keep them out of the direct sun so they would dry slowly. Lest they crack.

Tuesday when I got to the workshop I gathered together my spoon, and tools I needed to finish carving the bowl. I was heading out to a quiet, shady spot to sit and whittle. On the way there I was sidetracked by something that needed doing, so, I set my things down on an outside table while I tended to it.

Then, was further distracted by the call for tea time.

Probably 25 minutes had passed when I got back to my spoon. During that 25 minutes, it had been sitting in the sun, and yes, you guessed it... to my dismay, a big crack had appeared along the entire right side of the bowl I'd been preparing to carve out. There was absolutely no saving it.

That was 2 or 3 hours worth of work down the drain.

And one very nice piece of kindling.

I shan't make that mistake again!

living and learning-

susie