I have witnessed a sbject that has been debated over and over for as long as i can remember,,, what is an original design,,, who owns it,,, As a maker of stuff and mostly self taught and with some training I use the process of observation of designs that i find on any given form and then i go about doing my version useing the process i have learned to do ,,, Nature being the first source and then man made replicas of the subject,,, History now is readily available through this mavelous invention, the NET,,, thanks to the computer (the first being the ABACUS) I fine that anything man made over the years has found it's way into the etheral web in the form of PHOTOS and the touch of a button or should i say KEY,,, what a huge resourse this has proved to be,,, Much less expensive then books though no where near as beautiful as a book,,, This being the first resource i tapped into as a child learning to read i enjoyed books and pictures,,, somewhere along the path i picked up a pencil and started to draw what i was looking at, then picked up a knife and started to make what i saw others had done before me,,, Now i have developed some skills that give me the ability to create things that i sign my name on,,, they are not TOTALY ORIGINAL,,, they are in fact renditions and computations of my knowledge and skills, rendered or wrought by my hand,,, These objects are signed HKL this states i made this ,,,it does not say I invented this,,, for example ,,, I carve spoons i have developed the skills and the design of my spoons through observations of other spoons made by other makers,,, the biggest influence in my designs started from the humble STEEL spoon as it is the quintessential spoon of our time,,, I didn't have a mentor that showed me how to carve a spoon,,, I had no cultural spacific design just an ordinary metal spoon as the template and the ability to carve,,, THEN as time went on I started to get curious about the origins of the spoon ,,, who made the FIRST spoon,,, nobody really knows,,, we don't really know when a divot in the end of a stick became a spoon ,,, we can however rest assured that many have been made since that first one was made and got titled " SPOON " SO getting back to the subject,,, I have searched out some GREAT spoons on this web thingy and found Robin Wood a spoon and bowl maker as well as David Fisher also Barn The Spoon,,, these fellows make BEAUTIFUL spoons,,, They didn't invent spoons either they do have very distinct versions and styles that are their own computations of historical and reginal designs with thier own development and they are all capable of reproducing replicas of historical artifacts if they choose,,, As a spoon carver I don't give a rip who made the first one or even who will make the next one and I couuld not care less if someone makes a replica of one of the spoons bearing HKL,,, The thing that would be interesting would be if the spoons of today would be alotted in the future a reginal referance such as for example what has been dubbed the Scandinavian style spoon or the Haida spoon (made from Sheep horn) or the Japanesse spoon and thus become a traditional spoon a cultural treasure, an artifact of distinction carved by some obsessed anoymous maker or renouned artist,,, replicated by a random bunch of artisans and crafts people,,,

I just never really ever get tired of spoons,,,, there is so many diferent designs styles sizes the list of good stuff about spoons goes on and on ,,,, A storm brought down a nice size Alder into the back yard,,, sort of messed up the fence a bit and landed on the roof of the old avery,,, Not much damage to speak of really ,,, that would be looking a gift horse in the mouth,,, Alder is a great wood to carve and also good for furniture one of my faves for colour mostly I like to carve it.... and I like to carve spoons.
    I also like to carve bowls and Alder makes for some great bowls,,, And right around the time the Alder crashed into the back yard afew days later a ups type truck cruises into the frount yard with a package from LV,,,
  

And did i mention lately we have an abundance of maple down in the yard and amazingly, MAPLE makes for some great spoons, spatules, spurtle, bowls, and cutting boards  etcand you don't have to wait to work it,,, in fact it is way better if you get on it right away,,, The studio is being drywalled, mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded  oh wait i'm getting ahead of my self ,,, im only on the second mudded and sanded part,,, have to do somethin wait'n fer the mud ta dry,,, yuppers it's more spoons and bowls...