Carving a Welsh Love Spoon #3: The Heart-Shaped Bowl

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 Now it is time to carve the bowl of the spoon. Since the top surface of the spoon bowl needs to be lowered somewhat and I will lose my drawing of the heart, I started by roughly shaping the perimeter of the bowl so I didn't lose the shape.


I also transferred my layout lines to the side of the spoon because I didn't want to lose them either. I will need to remove wood from the top, bottom and sides of the twisted stem section also to gain better access when shaping the underside of the spoon bowl. While I had the pencil in my hand I marked the height of each section on the side of the spoon for the first time to help me visualize the spoon in three dimensions.


After roughing out the exterior of the heart shape, I pared the top surface down to its finished height and re-drew the heart on that surface.


The underside of the spoon will also need to be pared down, but I decided to do that after I had gouged out the bowl as it would allow me to exert more pressure and not have to worry about anything breaking. To carve the bowl I am using two Hans Karlsson palm gouges each with a different sweep. I also have a Hans Karlsson hook knife, but I felt the palm gouges would work better for a heart-shaped bowl like this. I started to remove wood trying to keep both sides of the heart even in depth and shape.


I took care to leave a ridge top center to cast a shadow and add some visual impact.


Having roughly shaped the bowl, I now turned my attention to the underside and pared that down to its finished height.


Next I started to shape the underside of the bowl taking care to feel which way the grain was running and to work with it. It is so easy to tear out a great chunk of wood when using lindenwood if you're not careful and once it has gone you can't put it back. To gain better access I pared the back surface of the twisted stem section too.


Then I pared the sides of the twisted stem…


...and then the top surface. I then re-drew the twisted stem to give me a reference.


All that was left to do was sand the bowl up through the grits starting at P120 grit and finishing at P800 grit. On the underside, I started at P80 grit.

The underside of the bowl will be refined further once I've carved the twisted stem section of the spoon.

In the next episode I'll rough out the chain section and then work on the padlock. The twisted stem section is the most delicate area of the spoon, so I will tackle that last.

Thanks for watching. 

Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.

Taking shape there.

Main Street to the Mountains

Looking pretty good so far, and I like your thought process to avoid errors, like keeping the back of the spoon until the bowl is carved.
I agree, the thought process about what to work on next and what to leave for later is very informative. Thanks again, Andy!

May you have the day you deserve!