Knots

Wow!! After going through Laura's flurry of excellent ideas, it looks like we will be spoiled for choices idea-wise!
Any one of the drawings she has come up with could form the basis for a marvelous lovespoon design so I've photocopied them all and am looking to see which design elements jump out at me and which don't.
I am very drawn to the eagle Laura has drawn with its wing wrapped dramatically around the top section of the spoon. I love the idea of the eagle appearing in our design as it is the symbol of America and it will go nicely with the Welsh dragon. Since the spoon symbolizes the merging of cultures, the dragon and eagle are very logical symbols, but I'd like to figure out a way to merge Laura's more realistic looking eagle into some Celtic knotwork as I have done with the dragon.
I also feel there is a section above the central circle which feels a bit too 'light'. To give this section a bit more weight without having it become overwhelmingly heavy, I want to utilize a nice pattern of Celtic knotwork.
While Celtic knotwork is almost unheard of on historical lovespoon examples, it has been embraced by modern lovespoon carvers to represent the notion of eternity or eternal love. This is especially so when the knot is circular or is 'enclosed' with no beginning or ending to the knot. For our spoon, the notion of eternity as it relates to the emigration of the Welsh to North America is an apt one. the Welsh have been here since the earliest European arrivals and hopefully will remain here as long as there is a North America! I don't know if Laura feels as strongly about it as I do, but for me, things like this lovespoon and the Left Coast Eisteddfod it is being made in support of, vividly illustrate that despite being the 'forgotten Celts', the Welsh have made and continue to make vibrant contributions to North American culture. I should mention that this spoon is being designed and crafted to help raise funds for the Left Coast Eisteddfod which will be held in Portland, Oregon on October 03-10, 2010. This will be the second year for this annual event and an exciting combination of online cultural competitions and live events in Portland. Please visit: http://americymru.ning.com/page/the-left-coast-eisteddfod-2010 to learn more. Your donation to the Left Coast Eisteddfod will earn you a chance to win this spoon, so even if you don't want to enter the competitions, you could still win a very lovely prize!!

So, with a nice Celtic knot in mind, I selected Laura's eagle crowned spoon with its little cascade of flowers. The lower body of the eagle merges into the knotwork, but its upper body remains pretty realistic. I changed some of the framework around and utilized some of the bottom section of the frame to create the origin of the knot. The knotwork has nicely filled in some of the 'empty' spaces, but I now am not so happy about the central circle. Originally, I had hoped that it would become the focal area of the spoon, but I'm not so sure about it now. It will be interesting to hear Laura's views on whether or not she likes the knotwork and where she thinks we should go with it next!
-Dave