I decided to add some color

[Joy]

Remember my first love spoon that I gave to my husband....I decided to add a touch of color. What do you think?

[Paul_Guraedy]

I think the use of a hint of color (not the brilliant red used for most hearts) makes this a much more interesting piece. Good work!

[Joy]

And here is my latest lovespoon. I designed this one because I have sunflowers in my kitchen. These are the petals that gave me so much trouble because the edges kept crumbling.

It is poplar, 9 inches tall and finished with Danish oil and then I used oil paints mixed with Danish oil to get the wash of color. When it is dry I will probably spray with Deft because it would be too hard to wax all those petals.

[Joy]

Thank you Paul. I just thought it needed something. I'm happier with it.

[Nancy-G]

Joy -- that's BEAUTIFUL. It's so beautiful it makes me wonder if I could carve a spoon .................... at least TRY

[Joy]

Nancy, absolutely you can carve a lovespoon! Watch out! I'm finding them very addictive. <grin>

Thank you for the nice comments.

[bowinhand]

Very nice translucent color. Shows the wood grain well. Spoons are addictive when they turn out so well. Wonderful work, hope to see more.

[Dan C]

Joy - Those are really beautiful! I think the light wash of color is just right. Now you have me thinking about doing love spoons. They would make great gifts. Life is too short!

Here are a couple of thoughts.

You mention crumbling edges. I wonder how birch compares with poplar for holding detail? I haven't actually carved birch, but it was recommended to me by an experienced master carver as a wood that was harder than bass wood which he said would be too soft for a heavy mirror frame that I'm planning to carve.

Anyway, maybe others could offer an opinion on that. It might help with those crumbling problems.

Also, I know spray Deft is commonly used, but, following comments by Lynn Doughty in a recent thread of mine, I plan to stay away from spray sealers - just because it's too hard getting it sprayed on evenly. The high points get too much and the valleys don't get enough.

If you used a liquid wax, you could probably buff it off with a shoe brush without too much trouble.

Thanks for showing us your spoons!

Dan C.

[Kate]

Hey Joy,
The spoons are beautiful.
The hint of color is very nice, it gives clarity to the piece.

Makes me feel kind of like Nancy, wondering if I could carve a spoon. I have a nice pile of assorted woods that I'm sure I could make one from.

How do you come up with your patterns?

[toycarver]

Those are really pretty. What I did with the ones I added color wash to was then coat them with some furniture polish ..I think it is called Feed and Wax or something like that. It is kind of a soft mixture that has orange and beeswax in it. I ran out, will try to pick some up soon and verify what I just wrote.