Vellus Quercus

Why this one exists

The first bowl I ever carved was oak, done with chisels, a rough and honest amateur version of this exact shape. Two years later I did something I had never done before: I went back and carved the same form again, to see how far the hands had come. This bowl is that second attempt. From above it reads like a deerskin, or a fleece, and the wavy rim was carved to follow the wavy nest of the oak’s own grain. I kept both the outer wood and the inner wood, so from the side the grain does something different at every angle. It is heavier than it looks.

It has not been sitting in a shop. This was the fruit bowl on our kitchen island for almost a year, and I refinished it before listing it here: my own blend of beeswax, carnauba and mineral oil. Food safe, a soft sheen, slight waterproofing. Somewhere in the carving of this one I had the momentary sense that I am actually a capable carver, and capable is as far as I will ever go with a compliment to myself. I love this piece. I will be sad to see it go, and I hope it goes to a good home. The oak came down at a home in St. Boniface.

Carved twice, two years apart

This is the first bowl I ever carved, cut from the same oak with an adze and chisels. You can still read the tool marks inside it. Two years later I carved the shape again, with a lot more control over what I was doing. The two of them are the same tree and the same idea, at either end of learning how.

It stood here

I was at a show when another vendor started talking about a tree that had to come down. The roots were running under the house and into the pipes, so it was the tree or the plumbing. I asked where, and I went to the house on the day it came down. I picked five logs off that yard. This one was the biggest of them. The glow marks the neighbourhood. Exact addresses stay private.

Every side of it