Carving with Passion

"With every carving there has to be an image in your mind of the desired end result, this is the driving force that will create your masterpiece."

With each Lovespoon that I create, it always starts off with a sketch to depict the elements that I want to convey to the prospective buyer. For instance, if it is approaching St Patrick's Day then the carving will incorporate clovers with the leaves in the shape of hearts.




This will then appeal to the romantic and the religious. Obviously each carving will have a different appeal to different people, a motorcycle enthusiast might like a Lovespoon to have a motorcycle theme, a baseball fan, a baseball theme and so on. You will find that most of my carvings will follow in the traditional sense, to keep with the ancient history and the overall meaning of a Welsh Lovespoon.

This Celtic tradition stems back almost 500 years and I'm sure that many of the carvers these days still use old carving tools. It would be interesting to know what brand is favored by most carvers. Would it be Marples, Buck, Pfeil, Sorby or Henry Taylor just to name a few. I have a mixture of several of these brands, each dealing with a specific task, so I guess it's a case of what you get use to.

Providing the tool is sharp and the carver is confident, the carving will come alive!!!