The Quercus Contrast
It’s not too often that I get in touch with my purely artistic side, but I’ve been playing this idea over and over in my mind lately, trying to develop a design to emphasise the great diversity and contrast that we can achieve in one piece of wood with various surface treatments. In the end I settled for a piece which used diversity of shape, as well as texture and colour, so as to emphasise the contrast even more.
So here’s the result! Called ‘The Quercus Contrast’, it is made from a single piece of English Oak burr (Quercus Robur), although this particular piece grew in Wales. The orbs are 2”, 3” and 4” diameter whilst the plinth is 11” x 6”, and the finish is a thin oil, just to seal the surface without building up any finish on it. They were scorched with a gas torch, then scoured with a brass-wired-brush before being oiled. I’ve made several pieces over the last year or so, where I’ve scorched and then lime-waxed the grain, but this time I wanted to retain as much blackness as possible, so no waxing, this time. The idea for the plinth came about after studying the work of Eleanor Lakelin, who makes some amazing hollow forms which she bleaches, so this piece was bleached for 24 hours, dried and sanded, then bleached for 6 hours to get the surface colour exactly as I wanted it.
C&C always welcome....Les
