Plateau live oak bowl, 16”L x 12”W x 9”H. No longer available.

This is one of my favorite bowls, made in the 1980s from a large burl on the side of a plateau live oak tree on a family farm near Cowhouse Creek in Hamilton County, Texas. A limb on the side of the trunk had died years before, and the sapwood of the trunk had responded by growing around it. The remains of the branch can be seen in the bottom of the bowl. With time, the center of the dead branch rotted away, leaving an upward facing hole that the sapwood never completely covered. When I began to cut the burl from the tree with a chainsaw, water gushed out. Rainwater had run down the side of the tree into the hole left by the decayed branch. The water in the “cistern” within the burl was filled with life and doubtless produced the intricate pattern of dark cracks that can be seen on the inside of this unique bowl. The hole in the center of the dead branch can still be seen inside the bowl, as well as passing through the sap wood on the side of the bowl.