The carving of wooden spoons, for eating as well as for kitchen use, stirring woods, and an array of other wooden products (treen), including hay forks and many others, has always been a traditional craft occupation of the Rom Polska, that is to say of the Veshtike and Bergtike branches (pardon the pun), though by no means are those the only Romani groups that are engaged in this profession. Others, in other regions and other parts of Europe (and the world) also make such products, and many, just like the Rom Polska, have their own unique designs. In fact, the carving of spoons and other wooden products has been a big part of traditional Romani work.
Among the Romanian Romani groups who carve spoons and other treen the bowl of the spoon is more egg-shaped and the point is forward, which among other carves the point would be backwards to the handle. It is often, by spoon carvers of non-Romani origin, referred to as the Roma spoon, but it is just one design and not an overly common one at that.
While the majority of the Rom Polska would use a large Stirring Wood (paddle kind of tool with a flat bottom edge) for stirring food in cooking and would never think of using a wooden spoon for this the Romanian Roma, on the other hand, do, and here just a very large version of their standard design with the pointed tip. My grandmother would have found that absolutely useless in cooking as such a spoon cannot reach the bottom of the pot and the sides, even those of a cauldron.
Some designs of the Veshtike and Bergtike are very unique even though similar spoons and utensils can be found in different cultures.
The design of the Veshtike Rom eating spoon, for instance, goes back well into the middle ages. It was traditionally worn in the hatband for men, in a leather “holster” around the neck for the children, and the women would have them in the pocket of their aprons. Everyone, not just in Romani Culture, would always have his or her own wooden spoon. I recently have seen pictures on the Internet, which I have unfortunately not kept, of Ciganos in Brazil having the same kind of wooden spoons in their hatbands.
The pocket spoon (though it rarely ever was in a pocket) for the children, and the larger ones later produced for the mountain shepherds, have a cousin in the so-called canoe or kayak spoon found among the Native Americans and the Inuit. This was one design that the Veshtike Rom took from the Bergtike, we are, after all cousins, where the bowl shape is different from those that they generally made, that is to say that is of an elongate fig-shape and not round, as is traditional for Veshtike spoons. It was the spoon for the younger children and instead of, actually, being in a pocket this spoon was suspended from around the neck on a cord in such a fashion that they did not have to take it off for eating and thus would less likely drop it onto the ground.
Then there is the Stirring Wood (I call it stirring wood for lack of a better name in English) which is common in both Veshtike and Bergtike tradition. The style and design of this one can also be found in different cultures and regions, such as Japan, China, India and (Southern) Africa. Generally the Stirring Aood is somewhat trapezoid in shape, at least the working end. It would appear that the Romanian Roma make a similar stirring tool though with a much more pronounced round handle. Having said that though, the very original Veshtike Rom version of the Stirring Wood did and does have a round handle similar to that of the spoons.
It is sometimes amazing that in regions and cultures so far apart a similar design of a tool has been developed.
From the trapezoid shape of the Stirring Wood the shorter Stirring Spatula developed – though it may have always been part of the range, so to speak – which was a favorite among people who were living a lot of the times out of doors, such as a mountain shepherds, who would have one of those, together with a serving spoon, their eating spoon and a butter knife, in their shoulder bag. Later this Stirring Spatula and the Shepherd's Spoon was something that people of the camping fraternity very much appreciated. Again, this spatula design can be found in other cultures far apart as well.
The traditional butter knife of Veshtike Rom design would appear to be another one where, in its original form, it has found its way to France as a butter/pate knife and spreader. Whether some of ours brought the design to France or whether is developed there independently I could not say and I will not even attempt to claim the credit for our People for this.
The so-called Shepherd's Ladle is another product that was produced in great numbers years ago but today is rarely made and that is because metal and plastic mugs have taken its place, even among the mountain shepherds, unless they are very traditional and prefer the wooden implements, as some still do.
The Shepherd's Ladle might be seen by some as a Sami Guksi, aka Kuksa, but it is different all together and is more like the Native American canoe cup. It is, basically, a short-handled small ladle which, probably, the Guksi once was as well, used to take water for a drink from a creek or a water butt. It was not and is not intended to be a cup for beverages of any kind and thus does not have a flat bottom, for instance. Neither did, in all honesty, the Guksi, originally; it only became it over the time, mostly in the last half century or so.
While, predominately, the carvers concentrated on making spoons and other household items of this nature, including bowls, trenchers, plates, rolling pins, dough bowls, troughs, and others, they also carved anything else useful from wood, and this included handles for tools – garden, farm and other – as well as tools themselves such as hay forks, rakes and, also, hiking sticks and such. Anything that could be carved out of wood or made from wood would be made, for own use and especially for sale.
Some carvers specialized in a particular range of products with some only making spoons of various sizes, for instance, other just bowls and such, while others made an array of different products, and the same still holds true today. The latter, that is to say making more than one kind of product, is a much better use of the wood for there are times when off cuts can still be made into something other. That is why I, as a carver, also, though they are in no way traditional, make chopsticks from thin straight twigs in a rural Japanese tradition. Firstly because there are people that would like to buy chopsticks and also and especially because otherwise those sticks would go to waste.
As indicated, for many carvers the making of what would be called hiking sticks or hiking poles today also was part of the work, whether for the shepherds, the hunters or foresters, or anyone else. You used and use what you can to earn a penny, as they say. The same goes for the making of clothespins, the so-called split pegs.
At Veshengro WoodWorks I, being said Veshengro (my Romani name), of Veshtike Rom background, from a family of spoon carvers and knife makers, am recreating those spoons and other objects as close to the traditional, though with one or two minor improvements in some cases, in order to keep the styles and designs alive. What pains me most is that I have no one who I can train up to follow this path, keeping those old designs going by continuing to make them.
All products are entirely crafted by hand using only hand tools and are intended for use rather than as a piece of art and each and every piece is unique as they are not sawn to a template but made, following the grain working only with hatchet, straight knife and spoon knife (hook knife) and such. So there will never be one the same as the other.
I am aware that my products are not cheap and I am making no excuses for this. Handmade cannot be ever cheap unless it is made by people being paid a pittance. A spoon can take several hours to make from start to finish and if prices would be according to the minimum wage – in the UK, which is still lower than in many other countries – they would have to start at 40GBP for an eating spoon.
2024 © Michael Smith / Veshengro WoodWorks
