Post oak bowl, 16.5”L x 15”W x 8.5”H.

This unique post oak bowl was carved from a burl on my father’s favorite tree, an enormous post oak hundreds of years old with a diameter of about four feet. It was a magnificent tree growing in the flood plain of our Goat Hill place, but in the fullness of time it was felled by heart rot that created a cavity more than a foot in diameter extending well up into the tree and out into the heart wood of the larger branches. I cut this piece from one of those large branches that had been attacked by heart rot and had died. As is often the case, the sap wood near the base of the dead branch had continued to grow and over many years had completely covered the sides and ends of the dead branch. I carved out the rotted core of the branch, exposing the intricate patterns of light heart wood, darker heart wood, and almost black wood surrounding continuing areas of heart rot, especially around cracks and crevasses. The result is an absolutely unique piece of Central Texas natural history.