A few new spoon carvers

A few months ago several of my students asked if I could teach them to carve spoons, and with the summer here we found a day to sit down and carve.  We went over the basics of design, axing blanks, knife grips and the idea of "stops," and even a bit of chip carving.  It was a lot to fit into one day, but they were sponges and learned a ton.  Tentative in the morning, both were making bold cuts by the afternoon.  

As with all teaching, I learned a lot myself.  For example, I realized that busting open a round is not something everyone can do quickly or easily--luckily I had prepared some blanks ahead of time so we could keep the day moving. Also, grain direction is not something that everyone immediately understands.  Next time I should spend more time diagramming the direction of the cuts.  Finally, I was happy with their progress with knife grips.  Once a student understands the technique and how safe a grip is if done correctly, they feel more comfortable using their full force in the grip. Once that happens, they make progress in a hurry.  By the end of the day they both had made their first spoons.

Look at the pride on their faces!  Happy spoon parents.  They even gave them names.

Thanks for a great day!  Super proud of you and hope we can carve again soon. 

Spreading the love

Last summer, my daughter Mae went to sleep-away camp.  While preparing for the adventure and going through the packing list, she decided to bring a wooden bowl and spoon to fulfill the "camp utensils" requirement.  I loved the idea of her taking a piece of home on this adventure--something familiar in an unfamiliar environment.  Apparently, the bowl was a hit among the other campers.  Mae got lots of compliments on her stylish treen from her friends, especially from a very dear friend.  This friend (call her K) made it known that she would love to have a bowl of her own.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago: Mae, spending the weekend with K, decided to give her a bowl.  But rather than grab a new one from the "for sale" stash, Mae chose one from our family shelf.  The bowl she chose had seen use in our house and had the patina to show for it.  It was also defective (cracks in the short grain during drying), which was why it was relegated for home use only.  Yet it was this bowl that Mae wanted to give to her friend.  "It's a good one," she said from experience.

I like to think she chose this bowl because it was loved.  The objects we use every day bear the imprint of use beyond a simple patina.  They represent the good times, the nourishing moments, even the spirit of community that gathered around to enjoy one another.  Now, like a little emissary, this bowl is off to a new home to build new communities. 

A recent text from K to Mae:

Spoon update

 I have been away from my workshop a lot this winter, but spoons travel well.  These four are now up in the shop if anyone is interested.  Just email me at ericgoodson38@gmail.com.

10" Cooking Spoon with flower chip carving, white birch and walnut oil. $45

5.5" eating spoon ("dolphin" style), with shipwreck kolrosing and shell carving, birch.  $40

Lefty eating spoon, white birch, with meander carving. $40

Righty teaspoon with chip carving and flower. $35

How does one say "locking lidded box" in Norwegian?

When I started turning, I drew a lot of inspiration from Robin Wood's book The Wooden Bowl. The glossy photographs of porridgers, mazers, and quaiches gave me shapes to imagine and words to describe them with. I still return to the book for ideas--such a great resource. I would encourage you all to run out and get a copy now, but the book is largely unavailable unless you are willing to pay Amazon's bargain-basement price of $975!


Then, sometime around 2014, Jarrod Dahl kindly shared photographs of his research on Scandanavian bowls and locking lidded boxes. About the same time, I also became interested in Roger Abramson, another turner of Norwegian-style ale bowls. For me, this was the first time I was exposed to a new tradition of turning, new forms, new finishes. But finding examples was/is hard. Roger suggests some books for inspiration, like Norske Drikkekar av Tre and Drikkestell for øl i Trøndelag. But unfortunately, like The Wooden Bowl, these books are impossible to find. And there are other books, referenced here and there on people's blogs, also impossible to find (for me at least.) Anyone have a copy of Vackert Svarvat: skönt målat by Svening Svenningson? How about Träsvarvning efter gamla förebilder by Hans Mårtensson? I will give them a good home...


Thus, most of my inspiration comes from the internet, and especially the Digital Museum. This is a great resource, but it can be frustrating to use if you don't speak Norwegian. Yes, the site can be set to English, but how do you know what terms to search for? Search for "bowl" and you get some results, but not what you might want if you turn wooden bowls.


So, this post is to help those out there looking for inspiration from the Digital Museum but not sure what keywords to use. 

Try searching for:

• "Skål," relating to the word "shell," a shallower shape, more open.
• "Bolle," relating to the word "ball," a deeper, rounder, more closed shape.
• "Ølbolle" or "ølskål" is a "beer bowl." Some with a pronounced foot, some with a tiered interior, some with the classic ale bowl profile that Jarrod popularized.

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023143641/olbolle

https://digitaltmuseum.no/0210211398427/skal

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011021907689/bolle

• "Vangar," a bowl with two ears--what I came to know was a "porridger" from the English tradition.

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023124642/vangar

• "Snippebolle" or "snippeskål," a bowl with four ears. I have also seen them called "snibbskal."

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023124572/bolle

• "Trøys," a spouted bowl for serving beer or milk.  Roger makes amazing examples of these!

https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023134090/troys

If you have further suggestions, please share them in the comments! I am especially looking for a search term or phrase for what I know as "locking lidded boxes", like below.

**Update (11/25/21): Many thanks to my friend and fellow turner Etienne for his answer to the locking lidded box question: "skruvask" or "skruvasken." 

**Update (2/18/26): During my visit to the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa, in June of 2025 did not find any of these forms in their collection.  They did have other canisters, but not with tabs.   Were these forms produced at all in Norway?  

Google searches for Skruvask reveal auctions of historic examples for about $200-$300.

Click here for a search in the Digital Museum.

Shop update

Snibbskal flying out the door...

 

    When the pandemic hit and all of our lives changed, I was able to ramp up my woodturning.  The commute to my day job disappeared when I started teaching my classes from the comfort of my home.  Turning bowls in my spare time became possible: teach, run down to the shop and turn, brush off the shavings, and run back to my room for the next class. It was a sweet life...

    I was really pleased with that surge of output, feeling like the consistency was allowing me to produce some of my best work yet.  But just as my output went up, full-time craftspeople were really struggling.  No longer able to teach, they came to rely very heavily on craft sales, and in such a moment it just did not feel right to put my stuff up for sale.  So I boxed it all up and tucked it away in my shop.

    Since then life has returned to a "new normal."  I am back in the classroom, teaching history from behind a mask.  Professional woodworkers are also returning to the classroom, providing an important income stream.  I was excited to hear from Jarrod Dahl during a recent Zoom seminar on crooked knife history and design that he just bought a building and plans to open The Woodspirit School of Traditional Craft.  Keep your eyes open for that!  

    And so, with things stabilizing, I have decided to update my Shop with some of what I turned last year.  So far the response has been humbling, as several bowls have sold in just the past week.  Thanks to all for your support!  If you see anything that strikes your fancy, send me an email at ericgoodson38@gmail.com.  My next shop update will focus on spoons, specifically eating spoons.  More soon...

The marks of life

    It has been a while since my last post.  Life threw a few curveballs, precipitating a move to a new home, a new job for my spouse, new schools for the kids, a new commute for me, etc...  The dust is settling now, literally, as we finish renovating, much of the work we did ourselves (demo, paint, flooring, kitchen, doors, trim, etc...)  Now a new normal is settling in, allowing for a little more time to enjoy life and heal from the transition.

    And so, this past weekend we took time out for ourselves and went to the local country fair.  The weather was glorious, clear, and crisp, and the foliage was near its peak.  Changing leaves always make me wistful and nostalgic, as they so clearly announce the passage of time.  And so we seized the moment, eating ridiculous fried food, wondering at the enormity and power of oxen, and watching the kids spin themselves silly on rickety rides. 

    We also enjoyed the local craft offerings, of which there were many.  So many skilled craftspeople in our area, especially the quilters and potters.  Around here, there are always more of these folk than woodturners.  Of the turners that I do come across, they generally seem to be working in the same genre: electric lathes, dry wood, and lots and lots of sanding.  The end result shows off the grain of the wood to be sure, but to me, it invariably looks machine-made.  Any sign of life, in the wood itself or in the marks left by the maker, has been obliterated--dried, sanded, and polished out of existence.  The skills demonstrated are admirable, but I am not personally drawn to the end product.  And this is pretty much the only type of turning represented at my local craft fairs.

    As my life settles down and I can again return to turning, I am reminded of what draws me to this process.   I love the way greenwood moves, the way it exerts its own energy and takes the form it wants.  I appreciate the marks left by the maker--the turning cuts and even the axe scars that bear testimony to the hand that made the object.  I enjoy observing paint wear with use, marking the passage of time, like seasons changing and leaves falling in autumn.  

Adversity and invention

In these extraordinary times, everyone has to adapt.  Working and schooling from home, competing for internet bandwidth with my wife, trying to carve out quiet space for everyone--it poses challenges.  For me it has become increasingly obvious that my basement workshop is poorly suited for our current lifestyle.  Noise travels too easily in our house and I am constantly disturbing others.  I have dreams of a standalone shop and even built a platform in the trees where I might someday have a treehouse workshop, though the family loves the platform as it is, and I can't take it back now.  But maybe I could set up an outdoor lathe on the platform?!?

Lugging my old lathe up there was out of the question.  It is monstrously overbuilt and nearly immobile.  So over the past few days, I banged together a Viking-style lathe to use outdoors and travel with if necessary.

As the name implies, this form of lathe has been in use for thousands of years and is a pretty simple affair: a single thick board for the bed, a notch cut down the center to hold the poppits, legs insert into holes in the bed.  Years ago I saw photos if Robin Wood making such lathes.  He attached the legs, stood on the bed, and cut the notch with a chainsaw.  It was quite a sight!  Ben Orford used such a lathe in his videos on turning bowls.  (I bought my first hooks from Ben and they are still among my favorites.) Since then I have had a chance to use a few of these lathes, mostly at Greenwood Fest courses with Jarrod Dahl and Robin Wood.  They are pretty simple to build, and if you are interested and want some guidance, Owen Thomas has just released a series of videos on how to build one of your own, and Sharif Adams also has plans and some great videos on turning.  I built mine in just a few days.

The new lathe has its quirks, and I am still fine-tuning the setup, but it works just fine. 

Turning outside can be idyllic or horrific, depending on the weather.

But there are some mornings when going to turn is in itself an experience. 

Our current adversity also comes with new opportunities--more time with family, more time for hobbies, more creativity. I hope you are safe and healthy.