Hand Print Press began in the early 90s, when I self-published Build Your Own Earth Oven. I was thinking of myself as a capital A Artist. However, as I learned from the garden and other teachers, art just means “to fit together” — it’s how the world works — flora, fauna, humans — all must fit themselves together, with each other, with the landscape, with wind and weather. In addition to the bookstore (which now includes a few other authors), the site contains stories and updates on ovens, heat, baking, beauty, agriculture, fire, community, culture, (spoon) carving, etc. It’s all art! Thanks for visiting. You can contact me at handprint at cmug dot com, or thru instagram.
— Kiko Denzer
Hi, Gale,
thanks for the lovely note and tips. I love the pallet pal! Brilliant. And the recycled styrofoam insulation — good use of a hard-to-recycle product. If you haven’t already found crooked knives, do a little searching and you’ll find plenty of good smiths around who will sell you a beautiful one, or you can follow Bill Coperthwaite’s advice, and cold forge your own pretty simply (see his book, A Handmade Life). They are wonderful tools that do everything a gouge does, and then some. More about that in future posts…. Thanks again for writing.
Dear Kiko: I was poking around on the Mother Earth News website, and something on the side about carving a wooden spoon popped up. I clicked on it, and followed it to your blog on how to make a wooden spoon. I have wanted to for a long time. I LOVE wood, trees, and recycling pallets destined for the dump. I use them to build things (a chicken house, a duck house, and other “useful” garden, patio, house things. I clicked on your link to your Mom, and loved that she liked making something out of nothing. I also do. And have for years. Being poor is the ‘mother’ to lots of inventions!
I found my way (via links you provided) to this website, and when I read the first item “Useful Beauty for the Kitchen”– you had me. The word “useful” grabbed me right out of my big chair. I’m well known for saving all sorts of things, they might be useful! I scrounged styrofoam for two years, then insulated the entire ceiling of my shop (20’x20′) with it–cutting and glueing it down.
Anyway, I am going to follow your direction and make a spoon. I recently bought a 3-knife set of scorps because I want to make spoons, and a Swedish coffee cup out of wood.
You may not know of it, but there are two items I want to tell you about because I think you’d appreciate them.
1. Grand Rapids, MN (I live there over 20 years) has a festival called “Goods from the Woods” which is the greatest festival, craft show, celebration of wood that I’ve ever seen. Anything to do with anything created from the northwoods is in the show. Honey, willow furniture, dogsleds, carved snapping turtles, and bark carving, ‘bitten’ birch bark, on and on and on. It is an outstanding event, that if you could ever attend, you’d love.
2. On YouTube, a guy named Izzy Swan, shows how to make a ‘pallet pal’ to dismantle pallets with the greatest of ease you can imagine. I’m in the process of making one right now. My little ‘business’ is GreenWood. I chose my last name ‘Green’ because it is my favorite color, and I sometimes work with green wood; mostly, I rescue wood destined for the dump and turn it into ‘useful’ items.
I know I’ve rattled on. It is wonderful to find another soul with same interests. I intend to follow you around like a puppy-dog and learn all I can from your blogs. Not bad for a 72- year old woman who now lives in the high desert (6,000′) of S. W. New Mexico!
Blessings & Many Thanks!
Gale