Some people draw,

I make spoons. I love spoons. I love to make spoons. I have struggled to make work about spoons, which has resulted in one successful piece, but I still don't feel done with spoons.

So, periodically I grab a chunk of silver and, much to N's dismay (who has to share a studio with my noise), I pound it into a spoon.
It occurred to me as I was making this most recent spoon that, for me, making a spoon is like drawing for other 3-D artists who draw to release artistic pressure and work through an idea.

I don't know what idea I'm trying to work through. I know I like to make them because they are the most "metal" thing I know how to do. I like working with the silver, which I rarely do in my other work and I like pushing the metal's malleability. It amazes me that a square piece of silver rod can be transformed into a predetermined shape based on the way I orient my hammer. It makes the metal seem fluid, or like clay, which it is, but I don't always think of it that way.

I am pleased with the gesture of this spoon, which is deliberately 'swooshy.' What I do know about why I make spoons is that I'm trying to find my own voice with them. Not necessarily something to say about them, but just my style or point of view on spoons and the gesture is one of the things I am most enjoy about the spoons I've made so far.

My favorite book of spoons is Herbei, herbei, was Löffel sei, a collection of spoons by Herman Junger. Good luck finding it. It was apparently only printed in Europe and very limitedly, at that.

Daily photo: 2/26/08