Tag: spoons

Introducing: Canebrake Studio

It feels tone deaf to try to talk about anything on social media right now that isn’t the horrific situation in Minnesota. Or the Epstein files. Or Venezuela. Or. Or. Or.

I know many of us are collectively grieving while in shock and in fear. Meanwhile, we still have to pay the light bill. The mortgage is due. We’re still expected to show up for work. It’s a lot.

So it is with a bit of reticence that I tell you I have done what many of you have asked me to do, and I opened a store to sell the handcrafted items—spoons, cutting boards, crosses, etc. — I make. It’s also where you can buy a copy of my book, Food Is Love.

I started a company to hold the store and my writing and publishing work, and it’s called Canebrake Studio. I talk about the logic behind the name on the store’s about page.

Why not just start an Etsy shop?

Several reasons, including liking to be in control, owning my audience, and seller fees, but the biggest one is that I don’t just want a place to sell things, although I surely do hope you buy things I make. I also want a place to talk about things like being a leftist who is trying to build a business in keeping with my values, in public, from scratch.

This is going to be a business with a point of view.

Because the time and money to make this happen came about because of the members who support my work, members at every level get a 10% discount on everything in the shop. You can learn more about being a member on this page.

The inventory will be updated on Sunday evenings, usually by 9 PM Central Time, so please check back.

And it’s still under construction, but all the pieces are there. Pardon the dust as it continues to get tweaks and adjustments. Remember, I’m building this in public.

I’m really excited about this, and I hope you will check it out.

30 Days of Spoons

Spoon number 1

A few weeks ago, pandemic isolation was getting to me. But then again, the dead of winter is always hard on me. First there is the lack of sunlight. Seasonal affective disorder is real, and does my depression no favors.

Then there is the damp cold weather that I feel in my joints, reminding me of my misspent youth. I just ache all winter. I ache less in Central Mississippi than I did in North Carolina, but I still ache.

My primary depression management strategy has always been making. Whether gardening or cooking or building a chicken coop or deck, turning a pile of chaotic parts into an ordered result hits my soul in all the right places.

But the reality is that pretty much everything I love to do is off limits in December and January, except cooking. And this year, I’m cooking for two of us, just like I do every damn other day of my life.

Add a global pandemic and political chaos into the pile and you get a perfect shitstorm inside my head.

So I was racking my brain trying to find a way to make things that I can do inside (where it is warm and well lit) and that challenge me, yet are not projects so huge I lose interest in them. I decided to try making some spoons.

Why spoons? Well, they are relatively quick to make, and yet require a bit of skill to do. And it’s something I’ve never done before, and if I were to do a number of them, I would probably get better over time. And, to satisfy my Protestant guilt, they are useful to boot!

I had a nice gouge to carve out the bowl, and bought myself a sloyd knife for the hand carving. I will write a post later on the technique, but to begin with I watched a few YouTube videos and was on my way.

The first one turned out OK (that is it up there at the top), especially for a beginner effort, so I did another.

Spoon number 2

And then another.

Spoon number 3

Then I decided I would make a spoon a day for 30 days. Today is day 12, and I’m posting each day’s spoon over on Instagram.

Whatever gets us through, right?