Category Archives: eco crafts & green projects

January 22, 2021 · 3:08 pm

An Inspiring Piece of Firewood

Inspiration pops up in the most unexpected places.

Last week, I was building a fire in our little wood burning stove.

A piece of kindling stopped me in my tracks…

It said: “Don’t burn me! There’s something special about me- wait till you see what’s inside me!”

so, I took it to the studio…. And, Tottie Tomato listened to what the piece of kindling

(from a tree that fell down in our neighborhood)

had to say.

A raggedy, curvy, bent, rough piece of upcycled wood that didn’t want to be burned,

told me a story about a Spoon Doll that was looking for a Best Friend to live upstairs….

So, I cut and carved and chisled and shaped…

Until she was ready to find her best friend.

I walked through the house, looking for the best friend who would live upstairs and have

adventures with ‘Dot’.

This oddly shaped Spoon Doll was telling me that the unusual basket ? or crown? ???

Was the ‘upstairs’ where her friend would live and that they were going to enjoy each other’s company.

Well…. friendship is one of life’s dearest treasures, so I listened when this little emerging Wooden Person

Asked a small mermaid, Siobhan, if she would like to move in ‘upstairs’.

Siobhan was delighted, and agreed to a little bit of carving adjustment so that she would fit her new accommodations:

Here’s Siobhan, all in pieces as she became smaller so she could move into her new shared home.

Dot provided comfort as Siobhan underwent her renovations.

After a lot of carving and sanding and painting and making of new joints,

the newly tiny Siobhan announced that since she is now smaller, that she wants a ‘Smaller Person Name’,

and that she is now to be known as ‘Sybbie’.

It was now time for Dot to receive her arms and to have a coat or two of shellac applied.

Dot objected, thinking that she didn’t like the sound of ‘shellac-ing’, so Tottie Tomato and Sybbie comforted her.

Tottie and Sybbie were getting in the way of progress, so I asked them to please move to the sofa to wait.

I gave them a journal to write in and a book to read, but I don’t think that they did either.

Spoon Doll Dot was very relieved to be completely finished, and needed a few moments to recover from

the whole carving and finishing thing.

Sybbie and Tottie Tomato told her that they had been through it all, too, so they were very sympathetic.

Brave little Sybbie even consented to being re-carved more than once to get to her final happy state!

Tottie Tomato had to go see to something else in the studio, so she left Dot and Sybbie to plan their

first great adventure.

Postcards from their first trip around the studio (their world as they know it so far)

will be posted in the next blog post. (Here is the link: LINK)

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Tagged as #carvedwoodendoll, #carvingwood, #spooncarving, #upcycledwood, #woodcarving, #woodcarvingart, hand carved dolls, Spoon doll, spoon dolls, wood carving

January 16, 2021 · 10:43 pm

Carving Spoon Dolls as a Way to Make Sense of the World

I have been pondering and mulling and thinking and feeling and questioning and reeling from world events.

To soothe and heal the stress and anguish that watching the unfolding of the dramas out in the world,

I have been using the power of metaphor and the physical process of carving my wooden spoon dolls.

to start to make sense of things, I felt like I needed to re-connect to nature.

Immersing myself in carving wood that has come from trees that lived and then died in our neighborhood is a powerful way of connecting to the energy of the earth, the stars, the rain, the sun, the snow….

I began last week’s carving with a Tree Spirit Spoon Doll…

As I was carving her, I realized that from now on, all the bowls of my spoon dolls need to be heart shaped-

They are invocations of Love.

Carving images of love and connection made me think a lot about sisterhood and how precious dear friends are.

These two little Sister Spoons were directly influenced by all the thousands of Comfort Bears that I have made over the years.

I wondered if I could combine the softness of lucet cord handspun (alpaca and wool) yarn with the solidity of wood to create

‘Comfort Sisters’.

The answer is, ‘Yes’…..

Our neighbors on both sides have babies and toddlers and I love watching them blossom.

I want them to grow up in a world that is in much better shape than it is now.

I want them to live in a world where people are kind!

So, this Spoon Doll is dedicated to the Little Ones, who deserve to have the Book of Kindness being a guidebook for everyone.

I was thinking about accountability and responsibility and the image of a very firm, loving, but ‘Listen Here!” Granny

who laid out a couple of really important rules and guidelines emerged.

As I was carving her, I loved the feeling of the gouge lifting petals of wood up,

and the feeling of ‘Yes-ness’ about working with a precious material that is a living thing- the lifestuff of trees.

Trees are ancient and don’t need rules the way people seem to….

Here are Granny’s Rules:

I have had so many powerful and wonderful conversations with friends and family this week about the healing power of making art.

That has been such a restorative thing for my soul.

I ended this week’s carving with thoughts about how we are all made of stardust,

and that we are part of a much greater cosmos than we can ever imagine, but we need to try to remember to imagine that,

and so much more….

So, I carved another Starbaby (with lovely Chokecherry wood)

as a reminder of our roots in Source energy,

and also as a reminder to myself of a dream that I had more than 35 years ago-

In the dream, the Northern Lights filled the sky, and

thousands of laughing, chortling, squealing with delight, Starbabies

slid and tumbled down to earth, bringing incredible joy and goodness with them.

May they continue to do so!

Here’s to Goodness! ❤

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Tagged as #spooncarving, #spoondoll, #upcycledwood, #woodcarving, #woodcarvingart, #woodendoll, carving wooden dolls, spoon carving, spoon dolls, upcycled wood, wooden dolls

January 9, 2021 · 4:29 pm

Respite from world events in carving spoons with love

This difficult week that our world has gone through made me want to carve out images of love, delight, sweetness and joy.

And, so I did.

My son upcycled trees that had died and had to be cut down, and made me blanks for my carving.

A Manitoba Maple from the yard of the parents of friends has re-incarnated as a mermaid.

I could feel the Mermaid in the piece of Maple, and so I carved this Mermaid spoon.

I wanted her to look like the ocean carved her, even when it was me who did.

My son rescued the wood from a dead chokecherry tree and made me spoon carving blanks.

The chokecherry wood became heart and hand spoons, 2 sweet little sisters and a woman who dreamt of dancing with the moon….

The chokecherry wood is almost translucent while it’s being carved and takes lots of coats of oil and several days of resting after it’s carved to start changing color.

Heart and hand images are dear to my heart and I find it very healing to carve them.

The first one is a spoon that is like a magic wand, asking to be waved in the air to stir up common sense and loving, calling out to appreciative hearts, full of compassion and gratitude.

The chokecherry tree died awhile ago, but it’s heart lives on.

It really wanted to be another Heart and Hand, and this one called to me to add color by including beads.

The pebbles in the palm of the hand and the bowl of the heart are not attached.

They just jumped in because they wanted to be in the pictures.

A whole lot more heart and hand carved spoons are waiting in a pile of upcycled wood from trees that have died, but are living on as carved spoons!

Two darling little sisters called out to me and asked me to carve them as spoon dolls.

The first is a sweet bunny who is excellent at giving bunny/upcycled chokecherry tree hugs.

I carve the arms on my spoon dolls from sections of wood that I cut away while I am cutting out the rough outline with the scroll saw.

It’s important to me that I carve their arms from the exact same piece of wood that they are made from, and of course, I have to make the arms moveable.

All the better to deliver hugs when the world is needing so much love….

I am enchanted by these little wooden beings who reveal themselves to me as I carve them.

I am guided by what they want.

No, I am not bonkers,

I don’t hear voices 😀

but I do feel that I am guided by the spirit of the tree in asking me to do what it wants and to let it be what it needs to be.

Birds obviously must have loved the chokecherry tree that now lives on in my carvings.

I am sure of this, because as I was carving the wood from the dead chokecherry tree,

a little bird asserted it’s claim to sit upon the head of the kitty who is clearly the sister of the hugging bunny.

The kitty is quite happy to listen to all the little bird has to say about sunshine and wind and rain and other stories the chokecherry tree still whispers of it’s days of bloom in spring, berries in summer and autumn and cold roots in winter.

Sometimes, a piece takes me totally by surprise.

I thought that this was going to be one thing and it turned out to be something totally different!

At first, after many many hours of carving the chokecherry wood, I thought that I had completely failed and that the spoon doll who was fighting me was destined to become firewood.

I tried to give up and go to bed, but no way, she wasn’t having any of that!

I could feel the wood trying to get me to see what was supposed to be happening, and I was drawn in, hour after hour, carving and carving and carving until finally at 3 am, I had an ‘aha’ and felt like I had gotten to where I was supposed to go with this spoon doll.

I jumped out of bed the next day, after not enough sleep, and immersed myself in this spoon doll, but this time, knowing what she was asking for.

She wanted me to see that she was a dreamer, dancing with the moon on her head.

Perhaps the chokecherry tree had loved feeling the touch of moonlight on it’s branches?

The spoon doll made it clear to me that she wanted NO embellishment, only to be allowed to shimmer in the light of the moon.

Okay.

I did, however, allow a little pearl to sneak into the photos. The Moon Dancing Dreamer was fine about it. Gracious, in fact.

I am utterly captivated by the joy (and challenges) of carving ‘raw’ upcycled wood that might have ended up at the land fill or simply being burned as firewood.

It’s alchemy to listen to the wood and let it lead me in transforming it in ways that surprise and delight me.

I look forward to continuing this adventure!

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Tagged as #ecocrafts, #spooncarving, #spoondoll, #upcycledwood, #woodcarving, #woodcarvingart, #woodendoll, carving wooden dolls, wood carving

January 3, 2021 · 3:27 pm

Spoons carved at the end of December 2020 and beginning of January 2021

I have been happily carving more spoons…

I carved a large crochet hook with an owl on it few years ago.

I never used it as a crochet hook, so have turned it into an Owlie spoon….

I did the same thing with a large ‘Fairy Door’ crochet hook that I carved and then didn’t use:

This Cedar Star Sisterspoon had an ooops-

I was tweaking her face and her head popped off! EEgads!

Luckily, I was able to rescue her 🙂 I just couldn’t throw her into the firewood pile after all the hours I spent lovingly carving her!

She will be wearing her blue sweater as long as she exists 🙂

I love this little Goddess spoon that I carved from a blank that my son made for me from a birch log from a dead tree in their neighbour’s yard.

I love having her in my pocket and carrying her around like a friendly pebble.

I carved the Forest Gratitude Spoon as a song of thanks to all the trees and all that do for for us, but even more for them for just being perfectly arboreally themselves.

I love the trees….

My son cut me a lovely piece of wood from what he thinks is Manitoba Maple.

This is what I do to get started with my carving: I draw on the blank piece of wood and sketch in a way that takes into account the checks and splits in the wood.

This one piece of wood has 2 spoons in it…. The Forest Gratitude Spoon, and another one that I am hard at work on, and will show you later when it’s done.

I also made myself some leather thumb protectors after I skewered my thumb with a very sharp pointy rasp.

Ow.

All in all, a fine week’s carving, with a few spoons that became firewood, and one that didn’t and happiness in the ones that are now prompting me to make a shelf for them…

So much fun.

I hope that you are having lovely times, too.

Happy New Year ❤

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Tagged as #carvedspoon, #spooncarving, carved spoons, spoon carving, woodwork

December 29, 2020 · 4:34 pm

Carving Wooden Spoons is delightful

Oh my goodness! Carving wooden spoons is just wonderful!

Hard work, yes. but…. ohhhh….

I have been a wood carver for decades, but have just discovered the joy of carving spoons.

The picture above is the first spoon I carved…. for our grandson.

My husband loved it, so I secretly carved one for him for Christmas, too.

I asked my family if they would like spoons, and the response was an enthusiastic yes!

So…

and

And, then….

I couldn’t resist combining one of my other great delights, which is carving wooden dolls, with spoon carving.

The inspiration that poured out kept me out of bed for a couple of nights as I had to sit and draw and draw and draw

all the ideas that were just pouring out….

I have tied in a few metaphors that have been weaving their way around in my heart…

On Facebook, I learned about stardust that has been discovered in Antarctica and then having a long time friend

sent me a poem about how the trees are full of stardust (as we all are) just enchanted me!

I am now carving what I call: ‘Storyteller Spoons’ – hand carved spoons that are meant to stir up STORIES, not soup.

After, stories are food for the Soul 🙂

Oooh! I had to carve a Star Baby spoon from walnut:

And, I have started a series of ‘Stardust Sisters Spoons’- articulated dolls with moving arms,

This one is carved from a blank that my son made for me from a birch tree that died and was cut down

in his neighbor’s yard:

I carved this Stardust Sister from the bass wood blank that came with the kit:

I love the metaphor of hearts and hands working together, so I went back to

the drawings that I did for the first scoop that I carved for my daughter.

But, I added a hand to the spoon, and carved out a bowl in the palm of the hand

as well as in the scoop of the heart.

While I was carving it, it came to me that spoons are meant to gather things,

but also to offer them, which is the perfect metaphor for this spoon:

I will be working with Hearts and Hands together a whole lot!

I made a video showing some of the carving that I have done over the last 30 odd years,

as well as the very very first beginnings of getting started in spoon carving.

These are just the first spoons that I have carved, and now that I have worked out

a pattern language for myself with this, there will be many, many more!

(I hope!) 😀

And, I hope that you are finding things that bring you joy, too!

Be kind, be safe, be well! ❤

Here’s the video:

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Tagged as #carvedspoon, #spooncarving, #spoondoll, #storytellerspoon, #woodcarving, #woodendoll, carved spoons, hand carved dolls, spoon carving, Spoon doll, Storyteller spoon, wooden doll

September 17, 2020 · 8:24 pm

How to Make a Tutu for Dolls Using Upcycled Cloth Tea Bags

For links to video on how to upcycle cloth tea bags into Teabag Yarn, and how to weave triangles with it, please go to: LINK

I love finding fun and unique ways to upcycle things, and so I have had so much fun turning cloth tea bags into yarn and weaving with it, to make tutus for the Merrie Sunshine and Mermaid Minnie Moonbeam dolls.

For the main page about Merrie Sunshine and Minnie Moonbeam dolls, please go to: LINK

Here is the video that shows how to make the Upcycled Tea Bag Tutu:

How to Upcycle Cloth Tea Bags into Teabag Yarn

Ahhh, tea! One of life’s great pleasures!

Some teas come in cloth tea bags that can’t be composted, so instead of throwing them in the garbage,

here’s a great way to upcycle the bags into yarn that you can weave with (or knit or crochet).

I’ve made a video about how to cut the cloth tea bags into fabric yarn-

What can you do with upcycled tea bag yarn?

Weave with it as if it’s regular yarn… for instance, here are a Star , a Dragonfly and Heart woven on pin looms that I designed for Dewberry Ridge Looms

Or: Make upcycled brooches- here’s a video showing how:

More videos about weaving with teabag yarn –

How to Weave Using Upcycled Teabag Yarn 2 Nails at a Time on Pin Looms:

AND:

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Tagged as #smallloomweaving, #starloom, #teabagyarn, #wovendragonfly, how to make teabag yarn, tea bag yarn, upcycle tea bags, upcycling, weaving, woven dragonfly, woven heart, woven star

March 29, 2020 · 8:38 am

How to Make a Simple Mermaid Doll with Yarn

Mermaids are a beautiful metaphor for staying afloat, no matter how hard the waves may crash upon the rocks.

This video tutorial shows how I took the idea of Yarn Baby (Tassle) dolls and created Mermaids with a little bit of yarn, a whole lot of love and a little bit of head scratching.

Oh, yes, also a few sneezes are included with love from our aged rescued Chihuahua mystery mix dear old dog who seems to respond to the making of video by coming into the studio and sneezing loudly whenever the video camera is turned on. Why? Who knows?

Anyhow, I hope that you will enjoy making Yarn Dolly Mermaids!

Here’s the video tutorial:

Upcycling old crochet cotton with potholder looms

For many years, I have adopted all the stray balls of crochet cotton that I have found at the thrift shop.

I have happily been using them in many different ways, but now they are coming together to be upcycled into lovely kitchen cloths to use instead of paper towels.