HELLO! I wanted to try carving out of a more exotic and harder wood than most spoon carving samples so I cut down a piece of Koa wood so I would have enough for another try should I mess this piece up.
I found a design on Instagram that I really liked. (credit here). After milling down the piece I drew out where I wanted the bowl and handle. The edge of the wood was close to the bark line and was soft so I tried to be aware of that as I cut the depth of the bowl later.
Began carving out the bowl first so I would be able to carve the handle without the fear of snapping the neck of the bowl and because holding the handle while carving the bowl would be awfully awkward to attempt. This also allowed me to establish the center of the spoon as I worked down to the handle and kept symmetry.
I used several bent gouges and decided on a rather flat bowl depth to match the design.
At this point in order to save time I used a band saw to cut out the basic shape of the spoon.