The first thing I ever carved was this love spoon in mahogany that I made for a friends’ wedding, with a presentation box in oak and sapele based on the Mastermyr chest. Not the finest love spoon in the world by a very considerable margin, and certainly not the finest example of box making, but this was an important piece from a personal perspective. Please read on as I’d like to tell you why.
I wanted to give something that came from the heart, and I wondered what I would wish this lovely couple to become. I envisaged the love they shared as a seed for the future, and carved the bowl of the spoon round. I thought of how their lives were brought and tied together and carved the neck as an intertwined motif.
I thought of their desire to share a home, and the struggle of homelessness one of them had faced, and I carved a padlock, a symbol representing home in Celtic love spoon tradition.
I hoped the love they shared would bring fruit in offspring and I carved the two leaves springing from that round seed as the two children I quietly I wished they would have. As one of them is a very gifted gardener, it seemed a logical connection, too.
In the short time since the carving, this lovely couple bought a house that they have made their home, and this month marks the birth of their second child. Looking at this family I have no doubt the love they share is as wonderful as it gets.
I do not carve as much as I would like, I try and stay humble and I would like to take my skills so, so much higher. But in the meantime, it just feels quite rewarding to look back and see that there is a wee bit of meaning to what I occasionally do.
studio ASAGI 