Paul 'Polly' Boyer ready to teach next generation of artisans at Eden workshop

Balancing precariously on the edge of an old beaten up chair covered in sawdust, Polly holds a piece of wood in his left hand, his carving knife in his right.

"You've done it now...I've got a spoon in my hand, I'll be hard to talk to," he said, shaving angles in the handcrafted kitchen utensil.

"Once I start, I'll do that bit there and then the other bit, then I stop talking. It just seems to short circuit all your brain channels into this.

"We reclaim trees, [we] don't [just] cut them down. Blackwood, poplar, red cedar, it just depends on what woods we get hold of," Polly said.

"The chips that I made in summer and the offcuts, they dry out and I use them in there to boil the kettle and keep me warm during winter. The whole idea is to recycle everything.

"We try very hard not to make waste. It's all for something. Theoretically, there's no waste. It's either firewood, or it's potting mix, or it's mulch."

After purchasing his property in Towamba in 2005, Polly sat down with a glass of red and began building the architectural blueprints in his mind.

Prior to meeting Rachel Clarke eight years ago, he said previous partners were blind to the vision.

"And then this woman came along and she went, 'Oh wow, you know we could do that.'

"And I said, 'Righto, get out of my head, where did you see that?' Because we both started thinking the same way," Polly said.

If it weren't for spoon carving, Polly said he wouldn't be here.

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"I'd been unwell for about six years, I'd had a bad run in with the black dog. I'd been a musician for many years, working bands and entertaining. That stopped.

"Mum always said I had busy hands. That stopped.

"That shed, all the tools were rusty, there were mud wasps in everything.

"And then I started getting better, I found Rachel, and then I found spoon carving."

Having lost six years, Polly felt he had to "catch up". He turned to Rachel and said, "I'm going out to carve, I may be some time."

"My hands weren't working right, whatever connects my hands to my head or used to connect my hands to my head, had atrophied. I had to build up those neural pathways again. It was very frustrating," he recalled.

After 18 months, Polly returned with the spoon he had envisioned, in his hand.

"I've done it. I've actually carved what I've seen in my head," he said.

Rachel pushed out her chair and disappeared into the house before returning with a thin wooden ladle.

"My one olive spoon. That's the first one he brought home and he said, 'It's not very good.' And I just went, 'It's absolutely brilliant!' I could see so much potential," she lovingly said with a smile, proud of her Polly.

Polly will be teaching at Discovery Park in Eden on May 20-26, for the Marmalade Session - a spoon carving camp for beginners to advanced. For more information: click here

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