Hollow form turned from Buckeye buy Burl, with African Blackwood finial

Hollow form turned from Buckeye Burl, with African Blackwood finial, 6" h x 3.5 diam

Please note that all proceeds from all sales go directly to humanitarian relief efforts in Darfur, with a focus on the enormous Zamzam camp of internally displaced persons—some 300,000 people who have inadequate food, medicine. A particular concern of this project is assisting the thousands of victims of sexual violence over the past 13 years of genocidal counter-insurgency, in which rape was frequently used as a weapon of war against both girls and women.

For further information about the woodturner and the different woods he uses, please see my personal website, www.EricReeves-Woodturner.com/. All turnings are one-of-a-kind, signed and dated by the woodturner.

The vessel seen here has been turned from a softly colored and figured piece of Buckeye Burl. Buckeye and related species are native to the eastern and western United States. Much of it comes from California, hence the botanical name of this species, Aesculus californica. The timber from California and Oregon is not particularly interesting underground, but once above ground, Buckeye burl more than makes up for this: the wood is soft, with a palette of grays, whites, blacks, and some brown and orange. This all comes from the oxidizing of underground minerals the burl has absorbed. The patterns that are generated by these colors are buy simply spectacular, like no other burl wood in the world. The variations and shapes in the figure are endlessly fascinating.

African Blackwood is the premier detail wood available to woodturners.

The finish, after sealing, is Danish oil (heat-rubbed into the wood), followed by hand-rubbing with a combination of carnauba and beeswax in a light solvent. This finish has what I think is a very light and transparent quality.

Prices for woodturnings are determined in all cases by the cost of wood (some are very expensive, e.g., Australian burl caps, Camphor Burl, Cocobolo, Snakewood, Manzanita Burl, and African Blackwood,), and by the technical difficulty (and thus time required) for the turning…and of course what I judge to be the degree of success!

[all shipping the U.S. is via (free) USPS Priority (2nd-Day) Mail; all shipping materials are: recycled, re-usable, or re-cyclable]