Spalted Turkey Oak Enclosed Form

Wood : Turkey Oak

Size: 31 x 30 x 11 h (cm)

This piece is the last one I turned in a small series made from the same spalted turkey oak. The earlier forms had wider openings, but the blank for this vessel was different from the start, the wood carried a story of its own, something more intricate and worth slowing down for.

Hidden at the base is a natural union: two young branches that, many years ago, fused together as the tree grew. That meeting point left behind a dense, swirling structure, a complexity that only reveals itself once the wood is shaped and the grain begins to shift under the curve of the tool.

Because of that character, I chose a more closed form, turned extremely thin so it would feel almost weightless in contrast to the density and tension within the material. The distortion that emerged during the drying process was quite expected, but this one went further than I imagined, creating subtle undulations that give the vessel a quiet, organic asymmetry.

From above, the piece feels calm and continuous; from the side, the movement of the grain and the soft warping tell another story entirely. It’s a form shaped by time, by the tree’s early life, and by the natural forces released once the wood was allowed to breathe.

A delicate, complex vessel born from a rare moment in the growth of a tree, and from the decision to let the material guide the final shape.