Manitoba Maple - St. Boniface - 12"

Why this one exists

This one took two tries. The first form came off the bench a few years back and travelled the craft-show circuit, and it never quite landed. That bothered me enough to bring it home to the bench this year: thinner walls, a quieter profile, and the big divots on the outside carved away in favour of fine textural detail, hundreds of small deliberate cuts instead of a few loud ones. What never changed is the wood itself: Manitoba maple, still carrying the pink inclusions this species is known for, the blush the tree makes in its own defence while it is still standing. Manitoba maple is temperamental to finish. It dries far lighter than you expect, and it has to be bone dry before you take it to 220 grit; sand it even slightly wet and the soft, pleasing surface never comes. This one waited until the wood was ready.

It stood here

A front yard in St. Boniface, a few streets south of the golf course. Somebody's maple had come down and the bucked logs were sitting on the lawn, so I knocked on the door with an offer: let me take some of the wood and I will carve you a bowl from it. She agreed, and this blank rode home in my trunk. The exact street has slipped my memory, so the pin is close rather than perfect. The trade was real.

Every side of it