A Carving Adventure | Taking My Tools To An Orchard To Carve A Spoon In The Blossom [FULL PROCESS]

Hello everyone, My new book - The Green-Wood Carver: Slow Woodcraft For Beginners is available to order now! I am delighted to bring you this new video where I listen to my intrusive thoughts, step out of my workshop, with my tools and block in a wheel barrow and make in a beautiful blossoming orchard. Each day, I walk past this orchard and see it change dramatically over the years. From the dormant winter, the blossoming spring, the fruiting summer and the orange glow of autumn. I find that the seasons here are so well depicted and I absolutely love the springtime where the palm blossoms snow down into the early meadow. Come summer, I beat my way through the waist-high meadow flowers and harvest the fruits that cling to the branches. For me, this was a much needed break in my routine and a wonderful way to reconnect with nature. In times of big life change, I often find myself looking towards things that are supposed to change - the seasons. It is here that I find a wild sense of normality of things being as they should. One more, nature is unforgivingly beautiful. Everything wants to just live and survive and in doing so, it produces the most wonderful sense of beauty. Its blossoms that allure the bees that pollinate for the bees survival all whilst making fruits for the trees survival which in turn feeds me and the surrounding wildlife. Here, in this space, I feel completely attached to natures ecosystem. This spoon I made is for my friends over at Thorn Wood Forge in Somerset, UK. They gifted me this incredible Merlin axe that I use in this video and it has given me such joy in my making. It has a wonderful weighty head that copes with the project I make with such ease. When I met Sam from TWF in London, I promised him that I would gift to them the fist thing I make with the axe and it has been so nice to document the process. https://www.thornwoodforge.com The Merlin axe, amongst many they make is of extremely high quality. Made from 52100 bearing steel, it retains an edge incredibly well all whilst having a great weight and balance. If you wish to hear my thorough thoughts on the axe, please do get in touch. The spoon that I made was a joy. It's an eating spoon from one of my favourite woods that echoes my current spoon carving, floating style. I love the flow of this shape and ergonomically, it sits really well in the hand and is comfortable in the mouth for eating. I love that with this spoon, I can use all of my favourite knife grips for as long as possible to really boost the enjoyment I get from making. I wish for you to all to know that I this was conducted on private land and I had complete permission to be in this space and that despite this apple tree being felled locally, I collected as many shippings as I could to prevent the potential of any unintended contamination to this space. I do not recommend taking wood from one diverse wild space to another. Nor do I recommend roaming around a village with your hand tools without a good reason to do so. As always, thank you all for your kind words and support, I really appreciate the love and encouragement. If you do have any questions, do comment below, I try and answer all when I am able to. If you wished to support me in my craft journey, I do have some spoons and other items for sale on my website. All the very best, Samuel Tools in order of use: Axe: Thorn Wood Forge - The Merlin Axe Knife 1: Adrian Lloyd - Slöjd Knife 4" Hook Knife: Nic Westermann - Finishing Hook Blade Knife 2: Adrian Lloyd Slöjd Knife 3" Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:53 Axe Work - Sculpting The Blank 07:10 Rough Knife Work 11:26 Hollowing The Bowl 13:58 Finishing Cuts - Refined Knife Work 18:41 The Finished Spoon 19:15 Project Debrief - Thank You