Spoon Carving at Easton College - May 2025

siloutaggart
May 23, 2025
2 min read

Two days at Easton College teaching spoon carving

It was lovely to be invited back to Easton College; this time to teach spoon carving to two groups of students over two days. This was made possible by a grant provided by the Norfolk Community Foundation - it's great to have support for experiences like this!

Thank you to the Outdoor Leadership team for allowing us to use their barn and outdoor space to teach in - it's a beautiful setting, with sheep in the neighbouring field and a lovely bushcraft area with outdoor classroom and pond.

Simon and I visited Easton College last year for three days of green woodworking. Check out the post HERE. This time, we brought our spoon carving equipment along (and set up the pole lathe too just in case anyone fancied having a go) in order to teach two groups of students the wonderfully relaxing art of spoon carving using sit-on "spoon mules".

Both groups of students were taught how to take a spoon "blank", clamp it in the vice end of their spoon mule, and use their hook tools and spoke shaves to create their own large spoons and spatulas. It was lovely to see how each of the students embraced the craft and created something to be proud of.

Spoon carving in this way is incredibly therapeutic. Once you have a basic grasp of the techniques, it's easy to become immersed in the moment and lose yourself to the mindful flow of shaving off streams of wood in order to produce your very own unique piece.

Simon brought along the pole lathe too so that some of the students could have a go at the ancient craft of wood turning but using this off-grid equipment. You use the force of your leg pushing on the treadle to power the lathe - just like our ancestors used to do!

On day two, Simon also gave the students the chance to have a go at using a shave horse and draw knife to remove larger strips of wood from their pieces.

Thank you to Easton College for inviting us back - we really enjoy teaching the young people our crafts. It's lovely to think that these experiences might also encourage some of the students to take up this or a similar craft where they can use their hands to create and make.

Read on for lots of photos & a few videos too!