Conscious Crafts: Whittling

This book is short, sweet, and filled with cool projects that I am excited to try. The diagrams for each project, succinct explanations of the tools and techniques, combined with beautiful photos of the finished project make the reader excited to try their hand at any one of these projects. The sheer breadth of the different types of projects (a pickle fork, a light pull, and pegboard to name a few) mean there is something for every would-be whittler to try their hand at.

Conscious Crafts: Whittling is part of a series on mindful crafting, this volume by Barn the Spoon (Barnaby Carder). Due out 12th April 2022 from Quarto on their Leaping Hare imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

I don't think many would disagree that it's been a stressful and difficult few years. There is a disconnect between our daily consumerist lives and our hands. Many of my friends and colleagues have picked up knitting, painting, or other crafts. This is a good general primer on whittling wood with hand tools. The author writes authoritatively and knowledgeably about woodcarving, but he also has salient points to make about process and how we relate to our crafting and the creative process.

The introduction includes a good overview over tools, materials, and basic skills. The following chapters contain the tutorials: food/prep items (egg cup, fork, tongs, chopsticks, a very clever whisk (pictured on the cover), and salt spoon), utility items (letter opener, soap dish, card holder, etc), and some small decorative and handmade crafts tools (buttons, crochet hook, drop spindle, plant label, and a nifty wooden whistle).

Tutorials contain a bullet list of tools and ingredients; measurements are given in standard (metric) units with imperial (American) units in parentheses. Instructions are clearly and simply written and are easy to understand. Each of the tutorials is accompanied by clear colour photographs and simple line drawn illustrations.

This is a very restful and very useful book. The author is quite talented at explaining the processes and the result feels like a well organised masterclass with a very competent and patient teacher.

Five stars. This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, maker's spaces, or home crafter's studio.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

This book does exactly what it was set out to do. It firstly goes over the basics: tools, materials and techniques, with an emphasis on safety, after all, we're dealing with knives here. There is a variety of projects some more complex than others and I think it's a good starter pack for a person who is just trying whittling for the first time.

I like that they are all useful objects: a spoon, a comb or a crocheting hook. There's a different kind of satisfaction when one works on something that won't just sit on the shelf after it's done. The diagrams are easy to read and the instructions are clear. The pictures of finished products are also crisp and pleasant to look at. Overall, I think this is a good book for beginners just dabbling into whittling but it also provides a different kind of insight into how a craft goes along mindfulness.

I’ve been shopping around for something new to try and the idea of mindful crafting wildly appeals to me regarding my own anxiety.

Thoughtfully presented and laid out in an appealing minimalist style, this goes into the tools you’ll find necessary and the projects themselves are presented with written instructions accompanied by helpful illustrations.

I really enjoyed looking through this and learning more about whittling and some of the beautiful results it can produce.

An amazing book about those little everyday objects you can carve with a knife. I didn't really know about whittling at all, but I just love wooden spoons and wooden kitchen objects like muddlers, pickle forks, whisks and salt/flour spades and this book shows you how to make them yourself! The material and technique is all described very well and the illustrations are extremely clear. In my ideal life I would like to be able to populate my home with ceramic bowls I made myself and kitchen tools I did too and this book really gives you the feeling that you can. I would love to try my hand at most of the objects in there. If you would like to initiate yourself to small and useful woodwork projects, this is for you. You could make very unique personalized gifts for your family and friends, and make your home environment, truly your own.

So.. this was fascinating and just what I was looking for.
I've been curious about whittling for a while but never really knew anyone who did it. It's kind of an old timey craft, ya know?
This book answered a couple questions I had and makes me feel fairly confident that I could make at least one of the projects in the book even with extremely limited prior experience.

A good introductory book for whittling useful objects from spoons, to combs, to crochet hooks. The instructions are easy to follow and the illustrations provide helpful guidance. Great book for new carvers who seek a sense of satisfaction by completing their first projects. Ideal for gift-giving.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As someone who loves to craft and create but doesn't ways have active thinking time while crafting, this was great! It helped me consider where to use my time and to enjoy crafting again!