Red Oak And Blue

Porosity, thy name is Red Oak. I could stare all day at the grain of this bowl. Well, maybe just a few minutes, but it is impressive, not least because of the sheer hugeness of all those tiny holes. I mean, all wood has these tubes, right? But some woods, like maple and apple, are shy about them and won’t reveal their pores unless under a microscope. Other woods, notably “ring-porous” woods like your oaks, display them proudly and without a hint of self-consciousness. If the wood is cut cleanly and all fine dust blown out (as with compressed air) the pores are easy to see, as is the case with this bowl. Another thing those pores do is soak up color, as they do on the outside of this piece. The technique here was to paint the wood and then sand it back to bare wood. The pores, being filled with black paint, really stand in contrast to the rest of the grain. I finished this piece off with a medium blue dye and several coats of hand-applied shellac. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the nice classical lines on this bowl, so preoccupied was I with the pores.