From a Nightmare To a Dream.

The 16th of February is an important date to me. When this one arrives it will mark one year since the first time I found out I was going to become a mother. I remember being so overwhelmed and falling to my knees with tears of joy and crying out to the Lord thanking him for this blessing in my life after two years of trying. Most of you know that not long after that, I miscarried, then again in August. Needless to say 2014 was the worst year of my life. After the first miscarriage a dear friend lent out his lake house for Shannon and I to get away. I downed wine, cried, and felt emotions that I had never felt in my life.

.

While we were there we made a trip over to Atlanta and visited Highland Woodworking. I have been an artist as long as I can remember grabbing a crayon, but mostly worked with paint. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at carving spoons. Creating has always been a way to express emotion with me, and I felt afraid of what emotions may be painted on a canvas at that moment. 

Tools that I started with, Erik Frost Mora hook knife and Flexcut carving knife

My first spoon, made of Brazilian Walnut.

We bought a few simple tools, hook knife, carving knife, and a few rasps.  I wanted to make something, and I almost wanted to feel monotony.  I carved my first spoon and it wasn't horrible.  Shannon knows so much about woodworking so he helped me along as far as any questions I had.

I begin my drawing design, and carving scoop on solid block.

I began to learn the nature of wood, how to work with the grain, which ways not to carve, what woods are soft, hard, brittle.  It is really amazing how versatile of a medium wood is. It's so incredible to think of the stories behind the wood you use, who owned it, where did the tree grow and such. I grew up in a wood shop with my neighbor Buck Riley who was a carpenter.  He had me running a table saw at 10, so I was not afraid of the field of woodworking, it was more of an excitement of all the things that I wanted to learn.

Awesome set of Veritas spokeshaves Shannon bought for my birthday. I know he loathes the fact that he has to buy woodworking tools for his wife.

Carving and sanding became a way to take my mind off of all of the horrid emotions that were going through my mind.  It is almost spiritual.  Around Christmas last year I pumped out quite an inventory, and when I stacked them all up, I barely remembered making them.  Many artists call this being in the "zone" where you go an alternate state of consciousness. 

At Christmas I sold quite a few, and gave many as presents.  Our brother and sister in law put a fire in us, swaying us to start a website, so we did.  In January we got busy.  Shannon and I both love to make things, I think that is one of the biggest things that draws us together.  We have only had the site a few weeks, and are doing very well.  We got into Southern Makers and will be attending a few things along the way until then.  I feel like God said, "you know, maybe I'll give you two a break this year."  We have been incredibly blessed lately and are so thankful to have so much support from friends and family.  Man, life would be such a bore without them! 

The hook knife wasn't my favorite, so I upgraded to these Hirsh gouges.

Going through something hard seems so difficult at the moment, but when time passes a bit and you look back, you read into more of why things may have happened.  I will never know why what happened to us did, but if it didn't and we had a tiny baby at home I know that there is no way we would be able to accomplish the amount of things we are at the moment.  God is good, don't give up, if you are going through a something horrid, I promise things will make sense one day.  We still have not been blessed with a child, but I know the day will come.  

First hand mirror, made of Ambrosia Maple.

Not long ago I cracked this spoon, tossed it to the side and a close cousin was over and told me not to toss it, said to just play off of the imperfection. Our imperfections are what make us the lovely individuals we are. I know many people who haven't been dealt all that much hardship, and their story isn't nearly as amazing. 

-Meg