Hello and welcome to my website. I am a woodcarver who specializes in utensils, particularly cooking spoons of all sizes. I also carve the odd fancy bowl when I have the opportunity. I live with my wife, who is a poet, on a small farm in Bourbon County, Kentucky, with abundant woods and undergrowth and healthy variety of wildlife, both resident and transient.

HISTORY

In August 1980 an earthquake felled a black cherry tree on the farm. Rather than allow the neighbors to burn up some beautiful wood I decided to see if I could carve it into something interesting. The results were a series of bowls, which gained me membership in the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen the following year. I have been making treen ever since. I began selling it in 1982.

A customer asked me to make a tasting spoon in 1986 and I have concentrated on smaller carved utensils since then.

PHILOSOPHY

Although I most often carve black cherry, I also use pear, apple, crabapple, mulberry, and hard maples. I prefer to use wood that has been culled by nature because healthy trees have the vital chore of converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. Unfortunately, nature seriously damaged many of central Kentucky's trees in an ice storm in February 2003 so I now have almost more stock than I can use before it spoils.

I do not carve my spoons to a set pattern. Most conform to a general type but no two are exactly alike.  I double or triple-steam and sand smooth the bowls of my spoons so the grain should not raise during use and I coat them with a non-toxic finish, which the USFDA has approved for use in contact with food.

My arched cherry bowl is on display in the gallery exhibit An Artful Array: Bowls by Kentucky Artisans at the Kentucky Artisan Center, Berea, Kentucky, August 27, 2011 - February 25, 2012. Be sure to visit their craft shop where my wares are always available for purchase.

My pearwood vessel "Truncated" is on display as part of the exhibit Moving Forward, Circling Back: Celebrating 50 Years of the Kentucky Guild at the Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts, 715 West Main Street, Louisville. The exhibit runs through October 22, 2011.

My work may also be purchased at the Appalachian Fireside Gallery, College Square 100 Main Street, Berea, Kentucky and the Scott County Arts & Cultural Center, 117 North Water Street, Georgetown, Kentucky.

I am always happy to sell direct. See my retail and wholesale price list for utensils. Contact me at TR@apgwilym-trwilliams.com.