one of Sweden’s best spooncarvers Fritiof Runhall

Meet Fritiof Runhall one of Sweden’s best spooncarvers.

Sweden is known amongst green woodworkers for spooncarving largely through the writing of Wille Sundqvist and teaching of his son Jogge. There are very few professional spooncarvers though and Fritiof is one of the best.

Here is some of his work.

 salad servers

 The top eating spoon is made from spruce and has worked well in long use.

 This small bird bowl was carved from the buttress of a spruce where the tree joins the roots so the grain follows the form.

 gold leaf finial

 very large 18″ ladles

and this is his makers mark though when you see the distinctive clean cut grooved surface of the bowl you don’t need to turn it over to see the mark. Fritiof has a range of characteristic forms too, a style that is immediately recognisable, traditional yet modern at the same time.

Fritiof is in the UK at the moment and has just finished teaching a spooncarving class in Edale, he has one more next week before heading home. I’ll post pictures of him at work and the course in the next blog post.