Spalted Maple Artwork

The wonders of nature never cease to amaze me.  On our trip to the wine country last month, my daughter and I visited a gallery and were mesmerized by some of the collections; but what captivated us and held our attention was the spalted maple turned to art.

The gallery representative was anxious to tell us that spalted wood is caused by a fungus that occurs primarily in dead trees, and the artist is careful to use only felled trees. 

Spalted wood is divided into three types: pigmentation, white rot and zone lines.  The artwork that my daughter bought is zone line spalting, which is characterized by thin lines of black surrounding heavy, black, irregular spots that appear very hard, almost like stone, called dark mycelium.  While all this is somewhat technical, the effect on the wood is simply beautiful, almost like thin ink lines shakily drawn around the heavy black spots.  In the gallery exhibit, the wood was cut into unevenly sliced slats and mounted on thin strips of wood to hold the piece together.  

My daughter bought the two pieces that were in the gallery to place over her bed’s headboard.  I suggested we paint a solid rectangle on the wall a very dark color to form a frame and place the work inside, the rectangle, of course, being larger than the two pieces together.  We did that, but once the art was up on the wall, it seemed too flat.  My daughter wanted more color, so we repainted the rectangle right over the original color, but without care to cover the sharp lines completely, while staying within the original shape.  She thought she would like to add a frame of molding to the painted on wall and paint it the same color, for texture.  Then she decided the irregular color on top of the dark color was interesting and she would leave it for the time being.

Artwork, of course, is a matter of very personal choice; fortunately we share similar tastes.  Her room is coming together nicely and I think she is beginning to feel it is just about right.

If you look up spalted wood on the Internet, you will see some amazing pieces of art, that are not only beautiful but useful too.  Spalted wood is used for musical instruments, bowls, tables and cabinets.  Some of the images show inlays of turquoise and metals.  Artists find uses for this wood in jewelry and furniture; their creativity seems endless.  Please be sure to take a look, next time you are at your computer, I think you will be amazed at this oddity of nature.

Something Old Is New Again

 

 

After the excitement of Christmas and the clean-up aftermath, I set a new goal for myself:  to rid the living room of boxes of books that thus far have had nowhere to go. I had wanted to get a bookcase for the area the boxes occupied, but it would have to be low enough to allow in the lovely light from the window above.  A low bookcase would not be sufficient for the many boxes of books.  

The space where the boxes were stacked for the past six months is right beside the fireplace—a pretty prominent feature in the room— and the boxes were not at all attractive.  I have selected a place for tall bookcases— which will solve the book problem—but that is another story.

For more than four decades, I have had a cabinet always used just to fill space in our home.  It is an old Magnavox Hi-Fi cabinet that I gutted years ago to make it easier for me to move around.  It is a very traditional mahogany piece and has seen better days since it first came to us.  After our move, I decided it might be more appealing if it were painted.  It certainly was not valuable as an original cabinet with its insides removed.  It had some battle scars from early use as a stand for a small portable TV. Paint seemed to be in order.

I had considered a black and gray combination, or a turquoise; turquoise won.  At first, it seemed too bright and lacking in depth, so I added some antique glazing; that was better.  Still not sure before Christmas what to do with it, I first put it in the spare room and let the holidays occupy me.

Come the new year, my daughter suggested I try using the old, painted the cabinet in the space beside the fireplace until I found something better; it certainly would fit.   I decided that the cabinetwould allow “Sophie” the cat, a more stable place in the sun to view the dogs next door; the boxes of books were sinking under her weight!  It also would add a bit of color in a room that already has a lot of wood furnishings.

I was not thrilled with the cabinet even after the paint; it just was not something I thought I would use again, but using it under the window was a good idea, so why not give it a chance.  Just when I thought I would kick it to the curb and see who might pick it up, it was spared that humiliation and has a place in our home once again.

The moral of this story is not to give up on a piece just because it is old and worn.  Paint can revive just about anything and bring new life to an old piece.  Who knows? It looks good enough to stand the test of time for another few decades.