I was fortunate to be given some off-cuts of Padauk from a colleague who was designing and building a cradle for his first child. It was a beautiful orange color.

After it started to oxidize, the color then turned to a deep red chestnut.

The first thing I noticed when I began carving with my small palm held carving chisels and gouges is that it splintered quite considerably when going with the grain. With this in mind, care had to be taken when removing the waste material from the spoon bowl to reduce the amount of splintering. This was to avoid any deep rips in this highly visible surface.

The initial carving was designed to have a double ended spoon with a central link. The idea was to mirror the design then have both spoons hanging from the one loose link. I had removed the material away from the link part of the carving and decided to start carving the bowls of the spoon before totally separating the body from the link. I know from previous experience that this process is the most critical.

During the process of removing the excess material I was distracted by my three year old son who of course wanted to play. Instead of placing the spoon safely out of harms way it was placed precariously on the bench and before I could do anything it topples to the floor and shatters into two pieces. My first reaction was to pick up the pieces and throw them into the scrap bin, after all a Welsh Lovespoon is carved from a single piece of wood. This designed piece was supposed to be linked together.

Several hours had already been put into the carving and now I new that it wasn’t one of the easiest woods to carve. It was hard, brittle and produced very fine orange dust when sanded. This would leave your hands with an orange residue and stain your clothes.

Fortunately it DOES come out in the wash. Needless to say the design ended up as a single sided Welsh Lovespoon!!!