Will Priestley

I am a full time spoon carver and green woodworker based in Bristol in the south-west of England.

I first carved a spoon while working for a local conservation charity and, to be honest, I only started as an excuse to buy an axe! I couldn’t justify the expense for the small amount of coppicing I was doing and had a friend who had done a bit of spoon carving so I thought I’d give it a try. Needless to say, I was hooked immediately and have carved most days since then.

I never cut down a tree just to carve the wood, all of the wood I carve comes from trees that were felled as part of local conservation projects. My most commonly used species are cherry, sycamore, birch, alder, willow and beech, though I’m happy to carve any UK native hardwoods I can get hold of!