Eighteen months after he opened his shop, I paid a call upon my good friend Barnaby Carder, widely known as Barn the Spoon, in the Hackney Rd last week to see how he was getting along – and I was delighted to discover him in high spirits and learn that the spoon business is booming. “I feel there’s no turning back,” he admitted to me, speaking as he whittled furiously while surrounded by wood chips, “I’m more in love with making spoons than ever.”
“Things are going brilliantly,” he continued, “Spoonfest, my international festival of spoon-carving in Edale is sold out, I’m teaching spoon carving at Tate Britain in July and I’m giving a lecture on making a living from craft at the Pitt Rivers Museum. It’s all going on!” Such is the rise of the one with the uncontested claim to be Britain’s top spoon carver.
Around us were scattered diverse spoons of all shapes and sizes, comprising the evidence of Barn’s ceaseless labour and exuberant creativity in spoon-carving – every one a masterpiece of its kind. Taking an example of each in hand, I asked him to explain to me their form and function – and below you can see prized specimens of the many spoons of Barn the Spoon.
“It’s not a fork, it’s a straining spoon for wet stuff like salad”
“Based on a medieval eating spoon from the Museum of London in Sycamore with a mineral stain”
“A Sycamore cooking spoon with a mineral stain, shaped so you can scrape the dish”
“Long-handled soup spoon in Birch”
“A Hawthorn eating spoon with a thumb grip that makes it very functional”
“This tea caddy spoon in Cherry wood is the perfect measure for two cups of tea”
“Assymetric cooking spoon in Sycamore, shaped so you can cook and serve with it.”
“Assymetric cooking spoon in Beech, carved from a bent branch so the grain follows the direction of the shovel so it’s stronger and won’t split”
“Another cooking spoon in a medieval design with a tapering handle in Sycamore”
“A little sugar spoon in Cherry wood”
“A child’s eating spoon in Sycamore”
“This Sycamore spoon oiled with linseed oil was inspired by the Swedish style, as taught to me by Jared Stonedahl”
“This is a similar spoon in the Swedish style in Birch. You can see the rings in the bowl, that’s because it’s made from a split branch, cut in the opposite direction to the grain, so you can carve the bowl down into the pith.”
“Another Swedish style spoon, this time in spalted Alder – the fleck in the wood is created by a fungus”
“A left-handed pouring ladle based on a Roman example in the Museum of London”
Barn the Spoon, 260 Hackney Rd, E2 7SJ. (10am-5pm, Friday-Sunday)
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