'walnut burl bowl'

when this piece of wood arrived, it held hidden promises, i couldn't wait to turn it again, trying to keep the essence of my newly found geometric style (!). however, it proved to

be a little more difficult than i anticipated.

walnut is beautiful when it behaves.

but burl is what happens when it doesn't.

a burl forms where the tree’s growth is disrupted, sending the grain twisting, folding and turning back upon itself. the result is unpredictable: eyes within the grain, intricate swirls, deep chocolate browns alongside warmer honey tones, and a surface that seems to shift as it catches the light.

there is no straight road through burl.

the grain travels everywhere.

for the woodturner, that is both the attraction and the challenge. it can be brittle, unpredictable and prone to cracking. tools that behave perfectly on ordinary timber suddenly have to negotiate a landscape with no obvious map.

that is part of what draws me to it.

i rarely want to impose a finished idea on the material. i prefer to begin with an intention and see where it leads. the unexpected turn, the small accident, the moment when the material asks for something different—these are often the things that make the work more interesting.

working with burl makes that relationship particularly clear.

i can have an idea of the form i want, but the wood has already made many of its own decisions. my job is to listen, respond, remove, refine and, sometimes, simply get out of the way.

the making becomes a conversation between intention and discovery.

and when the surface is finally revealed, the grain doesn’t simply catch the light.

it seems to hold it.

dimensions: height 7cm diameter 22cm