I’m Dominic Pearce, the maker behind Cornish Woodsmith.
I’m a green woodworker carving out a living making everyday kitchenware – plates, bowls, jugs, containers and of course spoons!
Members of my family have worked with wood in Cornwall for generations and I still use some of their tools in my workshop today.
Before the Industrial Revolution, wood was often worked fresh in its raw form with simple hand tools as I do today, using the properties of the wet, unseasoned timber to my advantage. It’s a lot easier to hollow a bowl or carve a spoon from fresh wood, then when it has dried and hardened, finishing touches can be added.
I draw my inspiration from the land and the sea, from the granite-strewn tors on the moors to the tin and copper mines, to the craggy cliffs and the green-blue sea.
It’s important that the many thousands of visitors to Cornwall support local businesses because it wouldn’t be the same place without them. The people that run these small businesses make up the communities that make it a special place to visit. It wouldn’t be proper Cornish without the Cornish communities.
When St Ewe asked me to make the spoons for the Great Cornish Egg and Spoon Race I was gobsmacked by the scale of the challenge, honoured to support the Air Ambulance and thrilled that my spoons would be joining the journey.
The spoons that I have carved to carry an egg safely around the entire coast of Cornwall are made from a Walnut tree that grew in Cotton Wood at the confluence of the River Ruthern and the River Camel. There are very few Walnut trees in Cornwall so when one (which used to be a beloved childhood climbing tree of a friend of mine) fell due to natural causes less than a mile from my workshop I knew I had to use the wood for something special! What a tribute to the tree to attempt a world record with some of its timber. The spoons have a nice deep bowl and are a secure fit for a medium St Ewe Free-range egg. The handle is long and thick enough to be comfortable and easy to hold for extended periods, it is faceted to make it grippy and printed in my signature colours, blue for the north coast and orange for the south.