Chip Carvings

Born and raised in Atlanta, I went to a school in the woods of North Carolina called the Outdoor Academy for part of high school where I was inspired by a skilled craftsman to try my hand at carving. Taking to it well and immensely enjoying the process, it quickly became my favorite hobby. Now, ten years and hundreds of spoons later, I'm living up on a mountain in western North Carolina with my dog, carving full time for markets and craft fairs.

Sticking mostly to smaller home utility items like spoons, bowls, and coathooks, my goal is to provide an honest, useful, elegant tool that's made to last. Though I occasionally use my chainsaw and bandsaw, all of the work is done using primarily hand tools and traditional methods.

Some pieces in my collection that I bring along when teaching. A variety of designs and wood types can be helpful and inspiring for new students

This past year I started teaching spoon carving and chip carving at Highland Woodworking, and have also been offering private lessons, both of which are fun and informative. I have two upcoming spoon carving classes at Highland, Spoon Carving Expanded from October 27-28, 2018 and Intro to Spoon Carving on December 29, 2018, both of which still have some spaces available.

More chip carvings. These are tiny v-cuts or "chips", cut out with a special knife. Applications range from embelishment on functional items to quite elaborate, purely decorative pieces

Chip carving on a carved spoon

Wood bowls, carved with axe, adze, gouge, and hook knife

Another wood bowl

And one more

A bit of my spoon carving process is illustrated below:

I start with the log

Split out 'blanks'

Carve them down with a variety of blades and methods

You can follow Will on Instagram at @billwurney.