I’ve loved wood for a long time but never considered it as a medium until I made two marionettes about 8 years ago. Pete gave me a great set of Japanese hand tools and that was it. The indescribable feeling and sound of a well-honed blade meeting wood.

Then Sophie brought back two beautiful wooden spoons from Latvia and I realised that “I can do that!” And so I have been doing it for a while. Some spoons are carved completely from fresh “green” wood found on the side of the road, some are cut on my scroll saw and finished with a blade, and others are cut and sanded to shape. I’ve experimented with inlaying or embedding brass, copper and silver wire, and made a “brand” that fits onto a soldering iron to burn my logo into the handles.

It’s a lot of work, and the sanding is interminable. But the reward is the rubbing on of the spoon butter – a mix of beeswax, coconut oil and walnut oil. Then the grain and colour of the wood comes to life.