On the Kent meetup last weekend I received a mulberry log. Many thanks to Laurence. I was really taken by the 3 different striking colours in the wood and the beautiful bark. In the pub afterwards I fell to thinking what I could carve from it.
The bark has a beautiful texture and is firm. The outer couple of centimetres of wood is a white wood. The heart wood is complex. It looks yellow/ green now but I am told will age to brown. It is shot through with red/ brown - especially at the border with the white.
So, I explored what one could do with this colour arrangement to good effect.
1) A spoon, or even a set of spoons - with the white appearing in different places on each spoon - the depth of the bowl, the edge of the bowl, on the handle, various orientations.
2) A Ship with the top of the funnels showing the white (and possibly the keel area out the other side of the log).
3) A relief carving of something. My inspiration was a leaf say. You could carve it in the plane of the colour boundary and so the veins of the leaf would be emphasised by the change in wood colour
4) A human hand - again in the plane of the colour boundary so the white picked out the back of the hand
5) Coasters/ drinks mats - either traditionally round, or cut on a slant to be different. Preserve the bark so all colours and textures are simply shown.
6) Clock face - like the coasters
7) Cleverly worked human statue where the wood colouring suggested dark clothing on a white skinned body. One would have to carefully plan the posture to make use of the wood colours.
8) Wooden forks and spatulae - a variation on the spoons.
9) Egg cups and goblets - again using the white wood in different orientations.
I then looked around the internet and picked out a couple of examples of what others have done with mulberry.
I think this one is done entirely by wood turning and shows how the colour distribution and the bark look.
It is the bowl below that is the mulberry, not the spoons etc.. The white wood hasn't been used but it shows the effect of the shooting through by the darker wood colour in the heart wood.
My log is about 6 inches diameter to about 9 the other end and about 18 to 21 inches long. What would you do with it?
The bark has a beautiful texture and is firm. The outer couple of centimetres of wood is a white wood. The heart wood is complex. It looks yellow/ green now but I am told will age to brown. It is shot through with red/ brown - especially at the border with the white.
So, I explored what one could do with this colour arrangement to good effect.
1) A spoon, or even a set of spoons - with the white appearing in different places on each spoon - the depth of the bowl, the edge of the bowl, on the handle, various orientations.
2) A Ship with the top of the funnels showing the white (and possibly the keel area out the other side of the log).
3) A relief carving of something. My inspiration was a leaf say. You could carve it in the plane of the colour boundary and so the veins of the leaf would be emphasised by the change in wood colour
4) A human hand - again in the plane of the colour boundary so the white picked out the back of the hand
5) Coasters/ drinks mats - either traditionally round, or cut on a slant to be different. Preserve the bark so all colours and textures are simply shown.
6) Clock face - like the coasters
7) Cleverly worked human statue where the wood colouring suggested dark clothing on a white skinned body. One would have to carefully plan the posture to make use of the wood colours.
8) Wooden forks and spatulae - a variation on the spoons.
9) Egg cups and goblets - again using the white wood in different orientations.
I then looked around the internet and picked out a couple of examples of what others have done with mulberry.
I think this one is done entirely by wood turning and shows how the colour distribution and the bark look.
It is the bowl below that is the mulberry, not the spoons etc.. The white wood hasn't been used but it shows the effect of the shooting through by the darker wood colour in the heart wood.
My log is about 6 inches diameter to about 9 the other end and about 18 to 21 inches long. What would you do with it?
...it is Red Mulberry from the SE US...Morus rubra to compare it to the species you have there...Red Mulberry does have a yellowish color with some hints of green and brown mineral streaks...I use mineral oil to maintain the color you see there...
