Transcriber: Anna Tomenendalova Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
A few years ago now,
my life had become incredibly kind of complicated
and overbearingly full of mindless clutter.
And I was very very busy.
And I had this deep down desire to really simplify my life,
this urge to just simplify me. And I thought to myself:
"God how am I gonna do this, how am I gonna simplify my life?"
And i just thought: "Bloody hell, I'm too bloody busy to simplify my life."
But I did actually find some time in the evenings,
as one does with a busy life. This is what I did -
(Laughter)
And I did this using the wood that I'd found from windswept trees
on walks out with the dog, and I did it using some basic handtools,
an axe and a couple of knives. And I did this until I got blisters,
and I did it until those blisters turned to calluses.
And I found that I couldn't stop.
So aside from having all these beautiful utensils,
I realized that I was actually becoming addicted to the making process.
And at the same time, my life was becoming simplified,
and it was becoming immeasurably better in many other ways.
And I thought, this stuff is medicinal,
and I should really try and pass it onto other people.
So that's what I set out to do. I set out to start spooncarving workshops,
where I teach other people how to carve their very own wooden spoons.
So who comes to a spooncarving workshop?
(Laughter)
It's become very obvious to me
that the kind of person that comes to a spooncarving workshop
is the kind of person that wants to leave at the end of the day
with a lovely handcarved wooden spoon.
(Laughter)
But most people, they haven't done any woodwork before,
let alone take an axe to carve a piece of tree into a shape.
So most arrive with lovely soft hands,
and this very firm idea
of the kind of spoon that they'd like to leave with.
So the first thing we do is we select a piece of freshly felled branch.
And it's really cool to see this,
this is where people really take their time
to select a piece of branch.
It's like they're trying to find a bit that they really connect with,
and they're trying to find the bit that speaks to them.
And what's really cool is the first thing they'll do
after spending some time doing this, is they'll pick up the piece
(Sniffs)
And they'll give it a good sniff,
and I always think this is a really beautiful and primal thing to experience.
And from this point on, we will be spending,
all these people, these students will be spending the whole day
with this one piece of branch they've selected.
They're gonna be wrestling with it, fighting with it, swearing at it,
making friends with it again.
Spending the whole day with this one piece.
So we take this one piece of branch,
and we spend some time learning how to chop it and slice it and cut it,
and make this thing into a spoon. And this is where people start to realize
that the beautiful spoon they arrived with in their mind
is now drifting far far away.
(Laughter)
And they begin to understand that the skills that we're learning
are actually about working with the wood,
as opposed to making it do something that it doesn't want to do.
After the swearing has stopped and people realize
that they're now having to work with the wood,
and they start working with the wood.
This kind of sense of.. the perfectionism they arrived with
and the frustrations that have been happening,
they all start to melt away.
And that frees people up to really start to enjoy the making process.
And once we really enjoy the making process,
we can go into this freakish place called the ''spoonzone''.
And the spoonzone is a place where...
it knows no time. And it knows hardly any sound.
And it's just people are so incredibly focused
on their making and their developing spoons.
Some people might emerge occasionally, and have a stretch
and sort of share stories of aching limbs and then they'll go back in.
And people are really reluctant to leave this zone.
One of the things I've noticed that can possibly happen in this zone
is something called ''toothpick theory''.
Now this is where you go beyond making the spoon.
And you are now whitling for whitling sake.
(Laughter)
And you run the risk of whitling down into a toothpick or a pile of shavings.
And I've heard people say: "I know, I know I've gone beyond carving a spoon,
I'm running out of wood, but I can't stop and I don't want to."
(Laughter)
Which is a brilliant thing because I love that,
I love hearing that because suddenly,
somebody that came to take away a beautiful spoon at the end of the day,
they are now enjoying the process of making so much
that it's not for any material gain anymore,
it's all about the process. Wicked!
Right, so a spoon is not a spoon, officially,
until we get that bowl in the end, right?
Yes, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon
when it's still a stick with the lump on the end,
and everyone is a bit like: "Oh my god," there is this kind of celebration,
relief: "I've come to spoon!" as that bowl starts to develop
and that's a really, really beautiful thing.
So for all of this hard work and all of this perseverance
and a day of sweating and swearing what do you get?
Well you get aching limbs, dirty fingernails, cuts and bruises,
lots of those, and of course you get a very wonky spoon.
Hopefully.
And I love spoons, I'm mad about spoons.
But you could almost say, and I'm quite reluctant to say this
'cause I love spoons so much and it is my living.
But you could almost say it's not entirely about the spoon.
(Laughter)
Beat matrix.
(Laughter)
So, it's not entirely about the spoon.
You could say the spoon has almost acted as a catalyst.
And what it's done is it's allowed us this journey of the day of making,
It's allowed us to kind of tap in to a place deep within
and connect with being ok with imperfections.
And to really truly be celebrating and be enjoying living in the moment.
And I think in this day and age those are two really ace things.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)