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Spalted maple urn

I believe that God is the artist, and that I have been granted the amazing privilege of unveiling his work. This amazing coloring that I found inside a maple log illustrates that belief perfectly.

This will be the cremation urn for a friend, so there will be a lid for this (probably walnut).

9 inches tall, 7 inches diameter. Friction polish finish.

Another honey locust bowl
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Another honey locust bowl

This bowl is the slightly bigger sibling of the previous one, coming from the opposite side of the log. Honey locust is heavy, dense wood, and can be a bit of a challenge to work with; I had to stop and resharpen my tools frequently on this one. But the end result is worth the effort.

It’s just a smidgen over 12 inches diameter, and stands 5 5/8 inches high. Walnut oil finish.

Click here to purchase this bowl! SOLD!

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Listening to the wood

I had not intended to make a fruit bowl when I started working with this piece of honey locust crotch. But viewed from the top, this one looks to me like a slice through an apple, so I’m calling it a fruit bowl.

When the wood tells you what it wants to be, you should listen.

12 inches tip to tip, 4 1/2 inches high. Teak oil finish.

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Buckthorn natural edge

Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) is a non-native and invasive shrubby tree in North Dakota, and it’s making a nuisance of itself in the woodlot at my family’s farm. This bowl came from a sizable crotch piece that I cut and turned last fall, and finally sanded and finished last week. The wood is lovely, but it has a tendency to crack badly as it dries; this piece was no exception, and I had to fill several cracks with cyanoacrylate glue and sawdust.

9 inches long, teak oil finish.

Poplar windfall
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Poplar windfall

Last summer, some of our friends had a large poplar branch come down in their yard during a wind storm. I offered to help with the clean-up, and brought home a couple of chunks. Here’s the result.

There’s a bunch of tight curl figure on this one, but it’s hard to get a picture that does it justice. It’s much more vivid than this in real life.

This one is 8 3/4 inches tip to tip, 6 3/4 inches wide, and about 3 1/2 inches high.

Here’s the one from the other side of the log.

This is just a bit smaller: 8 1/2 inches tip to tip. Both have had a couple of coats of teak oil and have been buffed to a satin finish.

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Prairie Skies II

This started out as a really ugly log. This is another one where I can’t decide which is my favorite side. I’m over the moon at the figure and coloring in this one.

The wood came from the North Dakota farmstead of my immigrant grandparents.

Boxelder. 5 inches diameter, 4 1/2 inches high. Teak oil, topped of with friction polish.