The bamboo stem was carefully roasted to enhance the colours within the cane. The fibers of the bamboo glow with hues of orange, yellow, and green. These colours wouldn’t appear as varied and rich in non-roasted bamboo. Care is taken to preserve the natural shape of the bamboo nodes. The bamboo was finished by scraping the waxy outer layer with a small blade used much like a mini plane iron, and then refined with needle files and sandpaper.
The bowl is made from a very rare piece of cherry wood. Rare, because the grain patterning exhibited in this pipe bowl is located in only one spot on an entire tree. The burl that is growing on the stem of a medium sized cherry tree will contain, at it’s heart, a block of wood that looks like the one pictured below. The central rings show the very beginnings of the tree, until the grain runs wild in swirls and waves. These mutations in the grain are caused by stress and injuries caused by fungi, insects, etc.
This cut of wood must be harvested from the forest, with the size of the pipe already in mind. A piece like this need to be hunted down in the wild. Then it must be carefully dried in the microwave to avoid cracking perpendicular to the central growth rings (which doesn't always work, ahha).
This piece of wood is unique in that it holds the entire history of the tree that yielded it, from the trees first growth ring, to when it was invaded by fungi.
