I like storm.

I really like storm. I like being outside in the rough weather and enjoy being blown around by the elements. It is a wild feeling. Coming inside to tea afterwards is hard to beat too. Another great thing about storms is that afterwards I can stock up on carving wood. I have collected quite a bit of sycamore after the last big storm we had here, and I have been playing around with it. I have been making a bunch of teaspoons to function as a set. All are roughly done, but a few need to be sanded through the highest grits. I dislike sanding, so this might take a while for me to begin with.

This picture is taken by my brother. I`ll mention which images aren`t mine, but I do not think it is necessary: It shows immediatly...

Here are a couple more, in various stages of sanding. Eventually they`ll all be sanded up to 600 or 800 grit, and soaked in rapeseed oil for a bit.

See? This picture is mine.

Further I have carved some eating spoons from the sycamore. I really like the wood. It carves cleanly and easily. It splits easily too. A very pleasant wood to work with. The only complaint is that it is a bit blonde for my liking. Well. I can`t have everything. It might be just the motivation I need to practice kolrosing patterns to spice them up a bit. Here is a small eating spoon that is perfectly sized for deserts. I am pleased with the curve and the bowl-to-handle transition, but I might have focussed on that too much. The bowl-symmetry got a little lost in this one.

Another spoon I want to post has a larger bowl. I am pleased with the handle on that one, and also on the handle-to-bowl transition. The long cuts work quite well on the handle. I now need to practice making them smooth enough to create a straight line between facets.

The red candle that appears as a badly imaged prop is one of the candles I made from old candlewax. We save the stumps from burnt out candles and I like to melt the wax and reuse it. I have a whole load of these little glass jars and quite a bit of wax so I`ll be making a few of these in the days to come.

For the rest I`d like to mention that I am quite excited to be a part of the second international secret spoon-swap that is organized by people in a fantastic facebook group. Over a hundred carvers from over the world make a spoon to send forward to someone else, and in this way every one that sends a spoon will recieve one from another carver. I feel a bit bad for the person that`ll receive my spoon, because there are so much brilliant carvers involved and my work is definitely not up to their standards. I`ll try my very best though, and I think the concept of this event is great.