carved from green wood: roughed out with a hatchet and/or a northwestern style adze, then shaped and finished with crooked knives and a straight blades (click on the thumbnail for an uncropped view of the entire photo). Some of the detail work is done w/little burins. The bowls I carved with a crooked knife, straight blade, and a neat jig designed by Bill Coperthwaite (author of A Hand Made Life). Bill’s spoon is the little yellow (birch) ladle with the scooped indents where the handle meets the bowl — his addition to the tradition of spoon design. After I started carving spoons, a friend gave me a book about the Shakers. It had a photo of a beautiful wooden grain shovel. I don’t shovel grain, but I wanted to make one. On the next page was a photo of a tin dustpan. We do use one of those, but it’s the ugliest plastic thing you’ve ever seen, and it just gets uglier with use. So for xmas last year I carved Hannah a dustpan out of a piece of maple firewood — that happened to have some nice bird’s eye figuring in it.
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Our most popular book, Build Your Own Earth Oven, came out in 1998 – or was it ’97? The much-improved third edition offers a simpler, more efficient, better oven, and better bread. New ovens, methods, techniques, questions and answers at "hot from the oven". See what author Kiko Denzer is up to at his page.
Max Edleson brings a marvelous DVD from Argentina that describes and explains natural building principles and many unusual methods by which to apply them. The DVD features one of Max's mentors, Argentina's master builder Jorge Belanco. Watch Mud, Hands, A House — and build your own.
Ann Sayre Wiseman, author of Making Things, is working on a new book on how to work with your dreams using simple, intuitive methods that work. Tentative title? Don't Argue with Your Dreams! It's a great technique to use with kids' nightmares. See Ann's Nightmare Help for more. Ann will also be presenting at this year's dream conference at the American Association for the Study of Dreams, in Berkeley, CA.
Interest in wood-fired ovens, school gardens, real food, real community, earthen building – learning by doing – continues to grow, as we do. Yes, we're responsible!...as a raindrop is for the sea. It is fascinating to participate. Much of what we learn comes through readers and friends, so tell us about your creative projects related to any title, or related interest. See these pages to share your ovens, projects with kids, and workshops. Contact us! and help improve the site!
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