Horn Spoon Workshop - Thermopolis

The first time we had Tom teach this quickstart Horn Spoon Making, he could not understand why you would want to start with already polished horns - just cut and form and shape and scrape! Although he is not going to work this way in his own horn spoons - he decided it was a pretty nice way to get people started in the crafting of horn into spoon shapes, then scraped and polished for use of decoration.

This is the quickest way to learn the ancient art of making spoons from horn. This workshop provides all the tools and materials needed to make spoons from cow horn that have already been cleaned and prepped.

Heating the horn makes it very pliable; once formed, it is quickly quenched in cold water to harden in the shape you form. The same spoon can be heated and formed several times to obtain the perfect shape. Cow horn varies in color just like cows are varied in color and pattern; some cow horn is even translucent - these pieces will have movement and characteristics that dictate their final form.

About Tom Lucas

Tom Lucas always had a deep desire to create art about Western culture.  Born and raised in Wyoming, his lifestyle as a cowboy, mountain man, hunter, trapper, and outdoorsman has formed the foundation of his art. His life experience lent to his ability to capture the cultures and lifestyles of all the peoples of the American West.

Tom Lucas’s interest and passion for ancestral tool making has led him to be documented on PBS films that have documented Tom making Big-horn sheep bows, a lost art artform that is known by a handful of individuals in “Archers of the Yellowstone.”  His knowledge and expertise in making many Ancestral tools has been documented in  “The Sheep-Eaters: Life in the Mountains.”

Known as Tomahawk Tom in the Mountain Man arena, Tom has mastered replicating Indian artifacts (Big-horn sheep bows, War-bonnets, beaded clothing and moccasins, horn spoons, knives, and arrowheads), many of which are subjects in his paintings and are on exhibit in museums throughout Wyoming. Tom grew up on the Wind River Reservation and learned to make traditional Native American tools from Shoshone and Arapaho