Spoons have always been in my life.  When I was little, my father, a US history teacher, collected coin silver spoons. Vacations included him stopping at antique stores and looking at spoons, and they hung in our dining room.  I first started carving spoons, though, about 10 years ago when I was wearing a small axe on my Utilikilt, and Cooper Ternes, now my great friend, asked me if I carved spoons with that thing! What followed was an impromptu lesson at his chopping block and the hook was set.

I’ve always been a graphic journaler, working at a small scale in pen and ink.  I also was a handlettering apprentice in the 1980’s under Todd apJones. So kolrosing came quite naturally to me as well as seeing spoons as 3-dimensional letter forms.

I am a teacher at heart and have taught spoon carving and kolrosing at the North House Folk School, the American Swedish Institute, Fireweed, and the Milan Spoon Gathering. Along with my partner, Erin Strauss, I’ve taught intensive workshops at the North House Instructors’ Retreat on teaching craft.  I believe that spoon carving and kolrosing are crafts that are accessible, affordable, and enjoyable.  In fact, I can carry everything I need to kolrose in my pocket!

My template is called the feather spoon because I often kolrose a feather on it and have used the template to teach advanced spoon carving and kolrosing.