Wavy Magnolia Bowl

The piece of tree this bowl came from has had quite a journey. Magnolia doesn’t grow in the northern US where I live. But it does grow in Florida, where my parents live. So years ago when they were visiting, my dad threw a chunk of a tree they had to have taken down into their trunk. “Magnolia, eh?” I said, rubbing my chin. “Never turned no magnolia before.” It sat on our porch, as things do, for what must have been two years. Finally, in a rare fit of cleanliness, I was clearing off the porch and moved it closer to the lathe. Eventually, it got roughed out and sealed and put on a shelf for what must have been another two or three years. Then, one special day, it got finished off into the bowl it had always dreamed of being. The wood looks like it could be maple or perhaps cherry or even chestnut, though it’s tighter grained, and it’s a little bit lighter than any of those.