My partner and I spent nearly two weeks in Medellín, Colombia this past December. After a jam-packed few years of weddings, family visits, and work travel, we realized this was the first vacation we'd planned for ourselves in three years. We dedicated the first week to learning salsa and exploring Medellín. After our classes ended, we took a four-hour bus ride outside the city to San Rafael, a small town nestled in the cloud forests - home to squirrel-sized titi monkeys, venomous pit vipers, and some of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. The eco-lodge we stayed at, Ritmo del Rio, was owned by Jesse, a self-taught woodworker who'd left California for Colombia 13 years earlier. He'd helped build...
Looking at a small block of wood and wondering what's hiding inside? Every whittler has experienced that moment of staring at a piece of basswood, trying to visualize what could emerge from those sharp corners and flat faces. It's exciting! For me, as a beginner, the possibilities in that moment are endless, until I begin carving and remember that I'm still at least a little constrained by my skill level. Part of the magic of whittling is transforming something ordinary into something extraordinary using nothing more than a knife and your imagination. In this article I'm going to try to inspire you with some fun whittling projects that come from the humble cubes. Most of these were done using a...
Why is Spoon Carving So Popular? My kitchen is filled with mass produced wooden utensils: spoons, slotted spoons, scoops and spatulas. But a hand carved wood spoon hits different. It looks and feels...more bespoke. There's something remarkable, almost magical about a handcrafted wooden spoon. In a word, its art. And functional art is really cool. If you stop reading this article right here, that's my working theory on why spoon carving is so popular. Functional art is really cool! Apparently, the world agrees. Social media is flooded with spoon carvers. From Instagram feeds filled with beautifully carved utensils to YouTube channels focused entirely on spoon making. This summer at a renowned Southern California arts festival we saw a booth dedicated...
You don't always have to have a plan to begin whittling. Sometimes I'll grab a piece of wood and just try to see where the knife and the natural shape of the wood take me. More often than not however, I'm the type of person that likes to know what I'm carving ahead of time (or at least, what I'm attempting to carve). Either way, transforming a piece of wood into a charming creation with just a sharp knife and your imagination is magic. If you're like me, and a little wood carving inspiration is helpful to get you started, you've come to the right place. These 5 whittling ideas for beginners, using common 1x1x4 inch basswood blocks, will help...
My friend told me about a camping trip she went on where her boyfriend, Martin, carved a wooden spoon in about 10 minutes, and the only tool he had was a pocket knife. He found a piece of wood, whittled down the handle and shaped the end. Then he pressed the rounded end down on a hot coal from their campfire, burning out the concave bowl of the spoon in a few seconds. They even used the spoon later for dinner. After hearing that story, I became intrigued by spoon carving. Functional woodworking has always appealed to me - carpentry, live edge wooden tables and benches - I'd fantasized in the past about creating things like that. Things which were...
