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The Paradox of Spoon Carving

The paradox of spoon carving is that the same technology supporting the culture is the very thing leaving us thirsty for a connection with something physical. We want to touch wood because we are inundated with digital images of forests even while we are stuck, many of us, inside.  The precise simplicity of a knife feels good after a day stumbling through the bewildering infinity of the digital landscape. The slowness of the craft is the appeal. It is an antidote to the modern dilemma of overstimulation and virtual reality. But rather than a turning back to some nostalgic, rose-colored idea of what spoon carving was, I see this beautiful community claiming spoon carving as something that matters now, perhaps...

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Our New Book: "Greenwood Spoon Carving"

  After two years of blood, sweat, and tears, Emmet Van Driesche (who is a leading teacher in the spoon carving world) has completed his latest book, Greenwood Spoon Carving. This book contains the fruit of his early years struggling through the isolated beginner stage to his successful career as a professional carver. Not only are his spoons some of the very best we’ve seen (they’re elegant, strong, masterfully executed), but he is also one of the best teachers on the subject. Emmet is clear, level-headed, and thorough. His passion to teach the art of carving wooden spoons led him in 2018 to launch his own print publication, Spoonesaurus Magazine – the periodical on spoon carving. I’ve been a subscriber...

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Discovery is Immensely Entertaining

M&T: Do you still do conservation work or are you mainly building furniture these days? DW: At this point in my life, I’m doing very little conservation and only for already established clients. I don’t take new clients. I suppose somebody could come to me with a project that would really wow me, but I’ve been restoring objects for 50 years. Instead, I’m doing things of my own creative impulse. I have a sketchbook of things to be built. There’s a lot of historical technology that I want to relearn or reinvent. I enjoy working from a spare framework of information to figure out how things were done in the old days. Not that I necessarily want to work that...

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