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 This is a set of 13 utensils made from black cherry (Prunus serotina) I picked up from a cleared right-of-way in Marion County, WV.  The spoons were all largely inspired designs offered by Lora Irish in her book "The Art of Spoon Carving".   The author presents her work by tying twine to the handles and hanging them for decor and for easy access.  Part of me wanted to run with this idea and make a mobile or a wind chime of sorts.  The majority of these spoons are what Irish calls picnic spoons.  The olive spoon (the one with a hole), the small cinnamon/spice spoon to the right, and the one to the right of it are all exceptions.  The olive spoon is meant for dipping olives or other things out of liquid.  The cinnamon/spice spoon has its obvious intentions, but I also gifted a similar spoon to a friend who had a baby for a baby food spoon.  The one to the right was supposed to be circular, but I didn't make my stop cut deep enough and cut almost half the bowl off while doing ax work.  All these utensils were hand-sanded from 120-grit to 800-grit and were finished with mineral oil.   

This is my idea of a Kuksa (Scandinavian drinking cup, traditionally carved from birch) I made of basswood (Tilia americana) I harvested from a downed tree in Marion County, WV.  I put a curl on the end to act as a hook for hanging on a pot.  There is a knot that I discovered while digging out the bowl, but it doesn't travel though to the outside.  I sanded it from 120-grit to 300-grit, for a shiny luster, and oiled it with mineral oil.  Since it took over ten hours to make, I would suggest displaying it as art, but it could serve either purpose.