Spoonfest 2013

Way back in August last year the sleepy town of Edale was once more host to 150 spoon carving folk from around the world.
A new addition was the Spoon Carving Chair which was occupied by various makers and gave people the opportunity to watch the likes of Fritiof Runhall, Jarrod Stone-Dahl and others carving at their normal pace. This is very different from seeing folk carving when they’re teaching and gives a better insight into their actual methods and way of working.their actual methods and way of workin

Also making it’s first appearance was the Spoonfest oven which was built as a course in the days running up to the weekend under the guidance of Martin Hazell, seen here giving it his blessings. The pizzas were certainly delicious.p to the weekend under the tuition of Martin Hazell whp to the weekend under the tuition of Martin Hazell who
Like 2012 I was particularly keen to help those people who have carved a few (or a lot) of spoons and were looking for a bit more advanced tuition to take their work up a level. This year, I ran a ‘Spoon Doctor’ workshop and invited the group to determine what they most wanted to learn. Running this kind of session is also a great learning experience for me as a tutor, not only to find out what folk struggle with but by keeping me on my toes. The main points of interest were positioning and carving cranks, achieving a smooth finish and carving hooks for ladles.

There was a huge amount of timber available and I tried to encourage people to think about where they start by looking at what others had discarded. There were loads pre-sawn and split spoon blanks left as ‘waste’ which were just perfect for carving into eating spoons.  It also turned up one of my favourite pieces from the whole event; does anyone know whose work this is?