David Western constantly endeavors to expand the artistic boundaries of lovespoon carving. David was born in Cardiff, Wales, and now resides in Victoria, B.C., Canada. A self-taught carver, David graduated from the London College of Furniture with certification in cabinetmaking and advanced furniture design. He also holds a degree in education from the University of British Columbia. While running a cabinetmaking shop in Victoria, David's casual interest in Welsh lovespoons grew into an overwhelming passion. Carving lovespoons to order is now his livelihood. David also teaches lovespoon carving at Camosun College in Victoria. David specializes in complicated and delicate Celtic knotwork. He also draws ideas from Art Deco, Northwest Coast First Nations, and Islamic art forms when creating his unique designs. He keeps a foot firmly in tradition though: each of his spoons is handcarved from a single piece of wood. All of David's spoons also demonstrate the deep passion and commitment that separate genuine lovespoons from mere souvenirs.
Across northern and eastern Europe and parts of Africa, a richly
symbolic and highly personal decorative art form has evolved over
the past four centuries: the art of carving lovespoons. Most often
imbued with details representing love or romantic intentions,
lovespoons have varied greatly in design and degree of complexity,
depending on the emotional intent, cultural background, creativity
and carving skills of the maker. In the past several decades,
lovespoons have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity and a
corresponding increase in their symbolic and expressive vocabulary.
In this book, the author, David Western, a Welshman now living in
Victoria, BC, Canada, presents a clear, beautifully illustrated and
photographed, step-by-step guide to the history, design and carving
of lovespoons. Photographer Chris Roberts' luscious photographs
make this book a feast for the eyes as well. Western begins with a
photographic tour of lovespoons throughout history, followed by a
fabulous gallery of current work that includes several pages of his
own masterpieces. From there on, it becomes a how-to book, pitched
at a level an avid beginner can follow. He walks us through the
relevant properties of various kinds of woods, how they move, the
importance of grain direction, and all the subtleties that carvers
need to know when attempting such delicate and complicated cuts as
a Celtic knot. Chapters on tools and sharpening follow, again
clearly photographed and quite thoroughly explicated. The tool
chapter shows the complete range of carving knives, chisels and
other gear -- including power tools such as the bandsaw, drill
press and Dremel tools -- that you'll want in your arsenal if you
plan to carve your own lovespoons. The sharpening chapter is an
illuminating tutorial on the hows and whys of sharpening and all
the paraphrenalia you'll need to keep your tools in top condition
for an effective and successful carving experience. Next comes a
practice chapter called "Technique," in which Western shows the
basic types of cuts and motifs used in lovespoons and how they are
made, including types of borders, curves, lettering, chain links,
swivels, and the spoon bowl itself. Knowing well that his students
will make mistakes, he devotes six pages to fixing the most common
ones. After an excellent discussion of finishing materials,
techniques, whys and wherefores, Western walks the reader through
three complete lovespoon projects, "novice," intermediate and
advanced. These may look difficult at first glance, but with
Western's thorough instructions, I believe that any ambitious
craftsman could accomplish them. The final chapters of the book
include a worthy tutorial on the process of designing lovespoons
followed by line drawings and photos of 15 varied lovespoon
projects, ready to enlarge to actual size with a copy machine and
get right to work, using all the knowledge and experience you've
gained by reading this far. It is a very nicely thought-out
progression from beginning to end.--Ellis Walentine,
Woodcentral.com
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 147 The lovespoon is
believed to have originated from the simple soup spoon. Just why
anyone got the idea of converting such a plain and utilitarian item
into an article of dedication and devotion, is hard to say. Yet the
process appears to have occurred in several countries, for the
Scandinavians, Europeans, Africans and (most famously) the Welsh,
all have the tradition of carving lovespoons as a token of love and
affection. The lovespoon is made from a single piece of wood and
although it may be so richly decorated as to no longer be able to
serve as a spoon, the spoon shape is essential to its design. David
Western, the author of this book, sees lovespoon carving as 'a
vibrant and exciting art form, not only because of its beautiful
carvings, but also because of its rich tradition and its relevance
to modern times'. David begins his book with what he terms an
Historical Perspective, tracing the history of the lovespoon and
indicating how the student may gain further insights into their
design. Chapter 2 explores Myths and Meanings - the symbology of
lovespoons - while Chapter 3 presents a wide range of examples of
the lovespoons being made today. Chapters 4 to 8 cover the basics
of the art, from selection of wood and the choice and care of
tools, to the kinds of finishing generally used. The next three
Chapters provide step by step instructions for carving several
lovespoons, from novice through to advanced. Chapter 12 offers
advice on design, while the last Chapter contains patterns for 16
Lovespoons, each with photo/s, a line drawing and description.
Lovespoon carving is clearly challenging, but as the many
generations of lovespoon carvers would no doubt agree, it is also
rewarding. About the Author: David Western constantly endeavors to
expand the artistic boundaries of lovespoon carving. David was born
in Cardiff, Wales, and now resides in Victoria, B.C., Canada. A
self-taught carver, David graduated from the London College of
Furniture with certification in cabinetmaking and advanced
furniture design. He also holds a degree in education from the
Llniversity of British Columbia. While running a cabinetmaking shop
in Victoria, David's casual interest in Welsh lovespoons grew into
an overwhelming passion. Carving lovespoons to order is now his
liveIihood. David also teaches lovespoon carving at Camosun College
in Victoria. David specializes in complicated and delicate Celtic
knotwork. He also draws ideas from Art Deco, Northwest Coast First
Nations, and Islamic art forms when creating his unique designs. He
keeps a foot firmly in tradition though: each of his spoons is
handcarved from a single piece of wood. All of David's spoons also
demonstrate the deep passion and commitment that separate genuine
lovespoons from mere souvenirs.--Australian Woodworker
Fine Art of Carving Lovespoons not only gives you the lowdown on
carving but it also tells the history, and myths and meanings
behind lovespoons. Once you've read about the basics including the
types of wood, tools, sharpening, techniques and finishing, the
author provides step-by-step instruction (accompanied by helpful
photos) for carving novice, intermediate and advanced lovespoons.
Also included is candid information on design and 15 different
patterns for you to use or adapt. And this book is full of great
photos! Fine Art of Carving Lovespoons seems to have all the
information you need to get started in carving your own
lovespoon.--Betsy Engel, Fine Woodworking
I started out with the idea of comparing David Western's Fine Art
of Carving Lovespoons to Carving Spoons by Shirley Adler, since
Matt Kelly had told me there had not been a review of Adler's book
in WOM. Both are published by Fox Chapel, which would seem to put
them at odds with each other. Such is not the case, however; all I
can say about David Western's book is "Wow, this is over-the-top
spoon carving." I think Adler's book is best for introducing love
spoons to carvers and deserves a review on its own. She will take a
carver from beginner to advanced spoon forms. David Western was
born in Cardiff, Wales and now resides in Victoria, British
Columbia. Trained at the London College of Furniture, he has
certifications in cabinet making and advanced furniture design. He
now carves custom spoons for his livelihood, specializing in Celtic
Knotwork designs. He draws ideas from Art Deco, Northwest Coast
First Nations, and Islamic Art forms to create his delicate
one-piece spoons. Contents Preface Introduction Part One:
Lovespoons then and now Historical Perspective Myths and Meanings
Lovespoons today Part Two: The Basics Wood Tools Sharpening
Technique Finishing Part Three: Lovespoon Carving Novice
Intermediate Advanced Part Four: Designs and Patterns Designing a
Lovespoon Patterns Sources The Preface carries the stamp of
approval from Dr Emma Lile, Curator of St. Fagan's Natural History
Museum, in Cardiff, Wales, home of the oldest know lovespoons in
this form. The Introduction reveals Western's passion for
creativity and his desire to replace some of the banal plasticity
of our society with the warmth of handcarved woods. Part One
plunges you into a wealth of historical material with displays of
ancient spoons from St. Fagan's in Western's native Wales and shows
the depth of research into the historical meanings and symbology of
these spoons, as well as references to other collections, and how
they can be applied into modern spoons. Part Two is all about the
basics of carving, woods to use, tools and of course, sharpening,
but the Wood !! David uses spectacular, highly figured maple, red
alder, walnut, and cherry. In a craft where we tend to use woods
with little or no grain showing, Western is carving in a
Technicolor of flaming, swirling, and spalted figures that dazzle
the eye. Techniques include chipcarving, ball-in-cage, chain links,
and scrollsaw work for the pierced elements. With such delicate
work, a highly important section on mistakes and repairs is
appreciated. Finishing relies on Watco Danish Oil to bring out the
fire in his pieces and beeswax polish to protect them. Part Three
begins Western's step-by-step series of spoon carving with
beginner, intermediate and advanced spoon designs. The beginner
spoon contains a number of traditional elements but will require a
scroll saw to cut out the several pierced areas. The intermediate
spoon introduces natural looking leaves combined with Celtic
Knotwork and hearts. The advanced spoon has multiple
balls-in-a-cage and chain links with hearts. Part Four is about
designing spoons and patterns and the teacher in David shows in his
encouragement for people to tap into their own creativity. He shows
that even the doodles of an uninhibited six year old can give form
to the vague ideas of spoons that might be, and that it does not
take great artwork to create new ideas. This is a wonderful book
that will take spoon carvers to new heights. Most of the
illustrations of spoons note their dimensions and wood types and a
gallery of his contemporaries work is included. Buy the book!--Dr.
Steven R. Brandt, Woodcarver Online Magazine
I've got a lot of wooden spoons in my kitchen, and I can assure you
not one of them bears the slightest resemblance to what David
Western carves. His are spoons in name only. A far more accurate
description would be "intricate portable carved wooden art," but
for Dave, they are even more than that. For him, they encompass
history, tradition, romance, and perhaps most important of all,
Welsh pride. "I was born in Cardiff, Wales," Dave recounted when I
asked him about his woodworking past, "and my family emigrated to
Canada when I was a kid. I never really did any woodworking until
high school, where I had a really good shop teacher who got me
fired up about cabinetmaking. While I was in university, I worked
for a cabinetmaker during the summers and a kitchen cabinet shop
during the year. "After college, I went to Europe to travel and
discovered the London College of Furniture. I took an accelerated
course because I already had woodworking experience, and a year
later emerged with a 'City and Guilds accreditation in
cabinetmaking.' I came back to Canada and started my own
cabinetmaking shop, but a few years later went to work with a
friend's company. I wanted to get my journeyman's papers, which
helped get union jobs, and tested out of the coursework by simply
passing the final exam. "Back when I was about 14, my family went
to Wales, where I first came across love spoons. For many years, I
would occasionally make one. About 10 years ago I started
researching love spoons and got into them seriously. The more I
delved into it, the more passionate I got about them. For me, they
represented a connection to my roots and allowed me to celebrate my
Welsh pride. About three years ago, I gave up cabinetmaking
entirely to concentrate full-time on spoons. "What I hope to do
with these is to create a portable piece of art that the owners can
connect with because it has personal relevance to them. Originally,
the love spoon was carved by a young peasant man for a young rural
woman who caught his eye. There were two reasons: one was to
indicate that he was smitten, and the other was to show off his
skill. In those days, that was a fairly significant skill to have.
The ability to work with your hands was important back in the 17th
century, when this craft originated. By the early to mid 19th
century, the finest examples of the craft emerged. One thing I
learned while writing my book about love spoons is that many other
cultures, including Hungary, Italy, Romania, Germany, Austria,
Sweden and Norway, all had similar traditions. "The tradition waned
around the period of the first World War, but revived somewhat in
the 1950s. At that point, many realized they could work faster
using power tools, and the spoons started being sold as souvenirs.
On the one hand, it is sad to see how they have cheapened, and for
me and others in Wales who still do it as a handcraft, seeing that
sort of tawdry development is sad. However, on the positive side,
it does keep the tradition alive. "I try to make each spoon a
little piece of art, so that it has feeling and an emotional
quality as well as a visual and technical excellence. I don't want
mechanized purity, but I do care about quality of execution. I want
each spoon I make to be as good as I can do at that point. Of
course, I cringe at times when I look back at 10-year-old pieces,
but that is part of growing as an artist. "Even though they may
often be very subtle, the bowl is a very critical element to me.
During my research on their history, I noticed that no matter how
crude the spoon carving was, a tremendous amount of effort was put
into the spoon bowl. They were smooth, thin and delicate, unlike
the current run of souvenir spoons, which tend to have thick,
clunky bowls. To my mind, no matter how nice the handle design is,
the delicacy of the bowl is critical. "A number of years ago, I put
up a website. Prior to that, I was making them only for friends and
relatives, and my business was all word-of-mouth. Since then, I
have started getting complete strangers contacting me. Originally,
most of my business came from Britain, but a few years ago an
article in a national Canadian newspaper gave me a good bit of
exposure. About the same time, people from the United States
started discovering me, and these days about 70 percent of my
business comes from there. The vast majority of my customers have
no Welsh background; they are simply intrigued by the spoons." Some
spoons can be very intriguing indeed, such as the one that ended up
in the Museum of Wales. I asked David to tell me the story behind
it. "It tells the tale of Taliesin," he explained, "a young man who
was a servant to a witch. She had a hideously ugly and stupid son,
so she brewed a potion to give him ultimate strength, knowledge and
beauty, represented on the spoon by three heads. Instead, the
servant drank it, and he got all these powers. "Angry, she came
after him, so he turned himself into a rabbit and ran away. She
then turned into a greyhound to chase him. Just before she caught
him, he turned into a salmon and went into a stream, and she turned
into an otter to give chase. He turned into a bird, and she turned
into a hawk. Finally, he turned into a grain of wheat, so she
turned into a hen and swallowed him. He then turned into a baby
inside her, and when she had the baby, and it was so beautiful she
couldn't bear to kill it, so she put him in a boat out to sea,
where he was rescued by a neighboring king. He was named Taliesin,
which in Welsh means 'fair brow, ' and he went on to become Wales'
most famous bard and a mythic hero. Intricately carved into the
spoon are all of the images from the story." "About two or three
years ago, I started teaching spoon carving at a local college, and
that inspired me to write a book on the subject. Carving spoons
takes very few tools. Other than using a scrollsaw to rough out the
main shape, I carve using a tiny straight knife, a few small wood
chisels, a flexible knife, and North American Native style bent
knives. It's almost all hand and knife work. My workspace is
basically a chair in front of a two-foot-deep counter about three
feet wide." David is quick to suggest that others should try their
hands at his favorite work. "As fellow Welsh spoon carver Alun
Davies said, 'A spoon is not a love spoon unless it is made with
love: love for the tradition, love of the wood, and love for the
person the spoon will be given to.' If you have a romantic occasion
coming up and you are at all handy with tools," he advised, "this
is an occupation that can give both you and the recipient a great
deal of pleasure."--Woodworker's Journal
It is with great pride and pleasure that we feature the work of
David Western in this post. He is a lovespoon carver from Cardiff,
currently residing in Vancouver B.C., and has just published a book
on the art of creating the lovespoon, Fine Art of Carving
Lovespoons: Understanding, Designing and Creati..., Fox Chapel
Publishing (October 1, 2008). Pictures of some of his beautiful
work are on our Pictures tab and can be seen below: Find more
photos like this on Americymru Just the thing for St. Dwynwyn's Day
or, if you must, St Valentines, or even Christmas for that special
someone. You can contact David or leave him comments on his
Americymru page here. David's website gives his bio: "I was born in
Cardiff, Wales but now live in Victoria, BC, Canada. A graduate of
the University of British Columbia and a cabinetmaker by trade, I
hold City and Guilds Certification in both cabinet making and
furniture design from the UK and Canadian Inter-provincial
Certification in joinery. I have been carving for over 20 years; my
spoons are found in collections throughout the world. "My
lovespoons are carved entirely by hand using only domestic North
American woods. I feel our native timbers easily rival any tropical
hardwood for beauty and colouration. Using sustainable, easily
grown lumber such as alder and maple allows me to avoid
contributing toward the denuding of tropical rain forests.
"Lovespoon carving is my passion. I constantly strive to expand the
boundaries of design while creating unique and innovative carvings
which respect and honour the tradition of the Welsh lovespoon. My
lovespoons are not souvenir trinkets; they are art which also
celebrates both my client's personal stories and my hard-earned
skills as a craftsman and designer. I believe the romantic,
thoughtful, hand-crafted lovespoon still has an important role to
play in our increasingly sterile and pre-fabricated society. My
goal is to continue the tradition of the lovespoon while
introducing it to as wide an audience as possible both within and
beyond the Welsh community."--Ceri Shaw, AmeriCymru
Learn to create beautiful lovespoons-hand-carved symbols of love
and deep affection that have been popular for centuries. With 3
step-by-step projects and 15 original patterns, this book will help
you to enjoy this wonderful craft no matter what your carving skill
level.--Highland Woodworking
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