Green Wood Spoon Carving w/ Duane Olson

Service Description

This workshop teaches the fundamental techniques of making a spoon from a greenwood branch (rather than dried wood). The size and final shape of the spoon will depend on the nature of the branch. Each student will make their own spoon first by riving (splitting) the branch and chopping a crude outline of the spoon with a hatchet. The handle and bowl of the spoon will then be shaped with a sloyd or carving knife and a hook knife. Participants will learn techniques for riving, chopping, and shaping greenwood with a knife, including 5 basic knife carving positions. Participants must bring a carving knife and a hook knife. The Mora Wood Carving Knife 120 with a laminated blade is recommended. Participants can bring their own knives, provided they have solid handles that can be gripped with the entire hand (no thin pocketknives), and have slim blades that are less than ¾” wide and over 2” long but less than 3 ½” long (no large hunting knives). The Mora Wood Carving Hook Knife 164 is recommended (choose your knife for right or left-handedness). Participants can bring their own hook knives or bent gouges (a Pfeil 8L 18 or smaller would work). Carving hatchets will be provided (or participants can share with someone they know). ABOUT DUANE I am a retired college teacher and lifelong woodworker. While I still enjoy traditional woodworking with power equipment, in the last decade or so, I have gone deeper into green woodworking, making spoons, bowls, mugs, and other decorative household items with hand tools and wood from my yard, the neighbor’s yards, or the neighborhood. I am inspired by the Scandinavian folk tradition of adding carved decoration to woodenware, striving for a unity of usefulness and beauty in everyday objects. This type of green woodworking contains infinite possibilities since it unites individual creative inspiration with the endlessly varied size, shape, and character of a particular piece of wood growing in a particular way from a particular tree. While there is no absolute endpoint, there is the ongoing joy of distilling a single possibility into a beautiful and useful object in this way, on this day. That is what I love and want to share with others. Snacks + Drinks provided (bring your own lunch) This workshop is for adults and is hosted at the Wild Arts Learning Center in Springfield, MO. We are just around the bend from Turner's Station, off J. Address emailed upon booking.