Donna Banfield
TOTW Team
I received an email from Norman Stevens last week. Norman is the collector who had his spoon collection on display at the 2010 AAW Symposium in Hartford, CT. The email informed me that his long awaited book, A Gathering of Spoons, had finally been completed. Even better, my spoon was included in the book. I honestly waited until I got my copy to make sure it really was; that I hadn’t received the email by mistake.
I am humbled that my simple spoon, which I carved from part of the maple tree taken down in 2007 at the Robert Frost Farm in my hometown of Derry NH was included in this collection. That maple is believed to be the inspiration for many of Frost’s poems, including “Tree at my Windowâ€.
When I was carving the spoon, I wrote about the progress on my blog, here: http://donnaturns.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
and here: http://donnaturns.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html
The book contains spoons created by many whose names we know and recognize: Dewey Garrett, Mark Gardner, Barry Gordon, Norm Sartorius, Jim Sannerud, Betty Scarpino, Mark Sfirri, Del Stubbs, Jogge and Wille Sundqvist, Gerritt Van Ness, and Jacques Vesery, many who frequent the ‘boards’: besides myself, Steven Antonucci, Kelly Dunn, Mike Schwing (well, he used to…whatever happened to him anyway?) and some you may have met at a woodturning symposium, but did not know carved spoons, like Deb Fanelli, JoHannes Michelsen’s wife, who works in wood and precious metals.
Tib Shaw, the AAW’s curator, worked closely on this project with Norman Stevens, and photographed the spoon collection that appears in this book.
If you are looking for a gift for yourself this holiday season, this book, and the stories about the spoon carvers that Norman Stevens gathered along with their creations, is a wonderful treat. Available at fine independent book stores, and here:
http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Spo...5944017&sr=8-1&keywords=a+gathering+of+spoons
I am humbled that my simple spoon, which I carved from part of the maple tree taken down in 2007 at the Robert Frost Farm in my hometown of Derry NH was included in this collection. That maple is believed to be the inspiration for many of Frost’s poems, including “Tree at my Windowâ€.
When I was carving the spoon, I wrote about the progress on my blog, here: http://donnaturns.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
and here: http://donnaturns.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html
The book contains spoons created by many whose names we know and recognize: Dewey Garrett, Mark Gardner, Barry Gordon, Norm Sartorius, Jim Sannerud, Betty Scarpino, Mark Sfirri, Del Stubbs, Jogge and Wille Sundqvist, Gerritt Van Ness, and Jacques Vesery, many who frequent the ‘boards’: besides myself, Steven Antonucci, Kelly Dunn, Mike Schwing (well, he used to…whatever happened to him anyway?) and some you may have met at a woodturning symposium, but did not know carved spoons, like Deb Fanelli, JoHannes Michelsen’s wife, who works in wood and precious metals.
Tib Shaw, the AAW’s curator, worked closely on this project with Norman Stevens, and photographed the spoon collection that appears in this book.
If you are looking for a gift for yourself this holiday season, this book, and the stories about the spoon carvers that Norman Stevens gathered along with their creations, is a wonderful treat. Available at fine independent book stores, and here:
http://www.amazon.com/Gathering-Spo...5944017&sr=8-1&keywords=a+gathering+of+spoons
