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Our Celtic Love Spoons Gallery

The designs of Love Spoons are limited only by your imagination.  I trust that some of my designs that are shown here will inspire you to carve a Love Spoon as well.  You are welcome to use these ideas as a starter to carve your own.  Even when you carve your own spoon - it will be different from mine. No two cuts are the same.

Warning:  Should you begin to carve Love Spoons - you will become very busy. They are very popular.  Your friends and relatives will be back over and over again to order more.

Many patterns are available on the Internet as well as some excellent books that have been published in recent years.  I appreciate so much the designs that I was able to look at on the Internet. They have sparked new ideas that I now use to create my own growing selection of spoons that I sell locally.

Some of the Web Sites that have spurred me on to carve are as follows:

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/spoons/spoons-1.htm

http://www.adamking.co.uk/

http://www.davidwesternlovespoons.com/index.html

http://www.thelovespoongallery.com/index.html

Pricing - One average the Celtic Love Spoon runs in the range of $30 to $55 Canadian - plus 8% Tax along with shipping and handling.  Delivery will depend on the season it is order. For an estimate please contact mistyhollowcarving@gmail.com - or call Murray Lincoln, the Misty Hollow Carver, at 705-760-9389 - Peterborough, Ontario Canada.  Please down load the Order Form - by clicking the button above.

I am able to carve almost any pattern or idea that you might have.  The sky is the Limit...

Murray Lincoln

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The Love Spoon Tradition

I have found new ways of developing the carving and the giving of a love spoon have become popular in our area of Canada.  I am truly grateful to men and women that have published their ideas and designs on the Internet. Their designs have challenged me to experiment with my own.

I trust that my carvings will inspire you to try the same or create new ones of your own.

"The custom of giving love spoons as a token of affection began in Wales in the 16th Century from what we can find.

Some say they were given to the one you loved as a courting gift (in a similar way to a bouquet of  flowers, but of course the love spoon would be lasting!).  Others have pointed to the fact that some would see it as a "promise" made to the one you were courting.  Still others state that the carving done was very much the same as the "sampler" made by the young ladies to demonstrate their abilities in needle work.

The love spoon  is carved from one piece of wood,  showing the skill of the expert carver.  It was almost always the handle of the love spoon which was decorated.

This was eventually enlarged to form a panel giving greater scope for decoration. Some forms included, piercing the panel, relief carving,  fretwork or a combination of all three.

Other developments included wooden chains, swivels and rings, the purpose being to make an object from one piece of wood, which seemed initially to be made from several pieces. The decoration of love spoons takes many forms to allow for the artistic  expression of the carver and to give  personal meaning to the design.

In the 1800's, when the Victorians started greeting cards, the tradition of the Welsh love spoons broadened to be given to family and friends and to mark special occasions, although the original idea of a courting gift is still as strong..."