lightning bowls

Here is another set of bowls that Adam turned. They are from a huge tree that used to be in my parents' front yard. It had to be taken down last year when it got struck by lightning and all its bark blew off. We somehow got a big old chunk of it from Ohio to New Hampshire and although it was pretty cracked, Adam managed to create two little bowls from it. We have no idea what kind of wood it is - maybe some ornamental, maybe hickory? - but it is really interesting wood. It is lightweight and has little tiny holes throughout it from the tree's xylem (water-drinking vessels). It also has this really crazy striping in addition to the normal tree rings. You can see that in the above picture - the vertical light stripes. I have no idea what caused that.

The above bowl was made from a piece of wood with a lot of worm damage - that's why there is the darker band near the rim. Adam loves wood with "character," so he's a huge fan of spalting and worm holes and other imperfections. The bowl below has a really amazing shape. It's small and perfect and we're sending it to my parents so they can always remember their tree.