It's not a spoon!

[Stringmaker]

I was helping clear loads of birch scrub from a public common recently and saw the perfect piece for me to cut and scrape away at. I was after a small diameter trunk with a good side branch, and after a few hours in the garage this is how it has come out:

As usual when I begin a project, I had no fixed idea of how I wanted the proportions and final finish to turn out but I think it's my best piece so far. I think of it as a soup ladle and there are so many facets of it to look at, from the shape of the bowl to the way the grain is shown that I already find myself just picking it up to examine.
Comments from the woodcarving demons welcome.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice ladle. I like that.

 

[Niels]

Nice work

 

[Dreadhead]

very nice that wood is beautiful

 

[Globetrotter.uk]

Nice bit of wood and nice workmanship. You could win the egg and spoon race with that.

 

[Stringmaker]

Thanks folks, I really like it.

It is amazing that a common or garden piece of birch can come up like that. The one concsious decision I did make was not to remove all the inner bark from the bowl, hence the demarcation between it and the stem.

Good point about the egg and spoon race: I should make some more and sell them to competitive kids!

 

[Fatbob]

I like this, very rustic.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Very nice , not sure how heavy birch wood comes out but it's almost right for a "priest" too ... ???

 

[Stringmaker]

Thanks Elen.

I think that to work properly as a "priest" it would need some lead in the bowl; birch isn't that dense.

 

[Macaroon]

That's a beauty!

 

[Harvestman]

Love it. I find the shape and grain and texture of wood so compelling - I just keep picking bits up to handle and admire them.

 

[Elen Sentier]

I thought it wasn't ... but it makes a fabuloue ladle