> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Amelia Hill > Reference:: https://search.app/HfS9p > Date:: 2024 > Tags:: #warp #wood > WeftLinks:: [[Psychological value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft improves well-being]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Carving is a meditative practice that helps slow down and process the world. ### Highlights > Woodworking, especially woodcarving, is becoming popular as a way to improve mental health and find inner peace. Many people, including Samuel Alexander and JoJo Wood, share their experiences of how carving helps them manage anxiety and connect with themselves. Workshops are now attracting diverse groups, offering healing and creative expression through this ancient craft. Samuel Alexander’s peaceful carving reels on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/samuelalexandershapes/?hl=en-gb) now have more than 56,000 followers, and his meditative [YouTube videos](https://youtu.be/Wrb5GEEdZAI?feature=shared) regularly generate more than 60,000 views. “I began carving after I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and PTSD but my journey soon became a beautiful discovery of how craft can help people like me to centre themselves,” said Alexander, who became one of Toast’s New Makers of 2022 and holds free workshops at the not-for-profit cooperative [London Green Wood](https://londongreenwood.com/about/) for asylum seekers and homeless people. “When I carve, I am able to look within, slow down and process things. Spoonfest, the annual celebration of wooden spoon-carving (“It’s the Glastonbury of the spoon-carving world,” said his daughter. “Tickets sell out within minutes of going on sale.”) Wood co-founded [Path Carvers](https://www.pathcarvers.co.uk/), a social enterprise based in Birmingham that brings traditional crafts and creative arts into urban areas. Dr Katharina Karcher from the University of Birmingham discusses the history and cultural significance of knives. Spoon-carving is now so popular that there are [workshops](https://www.spoonclub.co.uk/onlinemembership-2/local-spoon-clubs/) in almost every county across the UK. There is a [Spoontown](https://spoontown.co.uk/) weekend camping festival near Canterbury in England – and the [Great Scottish Spoon Hooli](https://www.facebook.com/thegreatscottishspoonhoolie/) in Cardross, near Stirling.