when carving a bowl i start by just looking at the wood grain. my goal really is to try and just let the bowl flow into creation. this bowl was carved from a chuck of gum wood. i carved this bowl in new zealand. we were staying at a place called solscape in raglan. http://www.solscape.co.nz/ i did some work for them and this piece came off the end of one of the timbers we were using. because of the grain and amount of gum in the cracks it was not good for structural building. the dark spots in the bowl are gum deposits (sap resin from the tree) the wood is very hard and polished up well. the curl or figure is amazing and in the right lighting looks very translucent. i carved this bowl in 2007 on a hill side above the tasman sea. every once in a while i get attached to a piece of my work. this was one of them. but sometimes having my work around to long blocks my creative flow. it has been show in a few art galleries and now that i have it back its time for it to go to a new home. the bowl measures: 18" long X 7" wide and about 2 1/8" tall (1 3/4" deep on the inside). i used a finish made from citrus, pure linseed oil and beeswax. the finish was made by bio-shield. i believe in using non-toxic deep penetrating finishes. 5+ coats. to maintain the bowls finish you can use a clean lemon oil or any clean natural non-died beeswax based finishing paste. gum, fruit and nut woods tend to develop a rich deep color the older they get. its really neat to watch the changes and feel the piece glow. hand signed with a wood burning pen.