Arifact Series, Spalted Maple hollow forms and bowls

Recently I have been playing around with some spalted maple wood that I rescued from yard in Florence MA.  It all started one day when I drove by the house and saw that the home owners recently had a very large sugar maple taken down and 2+ ft tall stump was left over.  That stump had some ground level burls looked to hold some real treasures inside. I stopped and knocked on the door and asked the owners if I could cut the stump up and use it to make some bowls. 

 They gladly said yes and for the last few months I have been taking the stump apart and turning some really interesting pieces from it.  These are not functional bowls and utensils, rather they are artistic pieces meant for display.  Since they are destined to a life of sloth and laziness I decided to give them a feeling of purpose by naming them, so here we are, the "Artifact" series.  I chose the name artifact because I worked with the faults, worm holes, and voids withing the wood to my advantage in the creation of the pieces and in so doing I believe they started to look very much like what an archeologist might dig up in some ancient ruins.  I have made a few now and I am posting pictures of my two favorites.  The bowl at the top of the page was a commissioned piece from the mother of the woman who owns the house and the stump, it was an anniversary present to the home owners and they loved it.  The bowl below was completed this week and I really like the way I came out!  The wood is finished with Waterlox and that's it, all of the color variations are simply what existed in the wood when I cut it out of the stump.  I am bringing some of the other pieces to the craft shows I am in this fall and once those are over I will be posting them on my etsy page.

I hope you like them.