While English teacher Chris Martin spends many hours a week digging and scooping through the material in English classes, many of his students don’t know he does a lot of digging and scooping while working with wood, creating hand-carved spoons.
“It started out as just something to kind of pass the time,” said Martin. “Then, it started to turn into a hobby, so I started
getting more of the tools and dedicating a spot in my garage to sit and do it.”
Martin said he has been carving spoons for about four years. In the time since he started, he has made around 20 of the wooden utensils. He sometimes gives spoons as gifts for people like his mother, who has received and displayed them.
“I don’t use [the spoons] that often. I’m almost afraid to [because] some of them are too pretty,” he said. “Some of them never make it outside because they are not pretty. I am afraid to mess them up because I spend so much time getting them to look the way [they are].”
Martin stays busy in his hobby due to hand carving, which takes around seven hours per piece. He typically splits this into about three or four sessions. Chris’s wife, Chelsie Martin said that any friends who see his work are really impressed and enjoy seeing his creations.
“He’s improved a lot,” Chelsie said. “He started with some basic tools, and his [product] was good, but now he has really good tools, and the end product is much cleaner and more polished.”

Chris explained he doesn’t tell many people about his wood carving hobby. “Outside of my Facebook group that I follow [of wood] carvers, I don’t know any others that are actively wood carving, so it is an interesting conversation starter,” said Chris. “It is met with: Oh, that’s weird.’’
Since Chris started making his wooden creations, he has learned about the process of making the spoons, which he now knows how to create through a lot of practice.

Chris said to begin the process, you take a piece of wood and split it in half, making a flat surface.
Apart from carving spoons, other hobbies he enjoys include hiking, backpacking, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Chris has expressed interest in other types of carving, such as carving small wooden figures.
“I bought a book on how to carve little figures. I made one while we were camping one time, and I gave to my daughter,” he explained. “It’s really weird looking, but she liked it. Maybe I could get into that more and carving little figures.”