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- At the figure of wood studio we are always focused on the beauty of the wood. Wood is the magical mystery material of the ages. Humans have been using wood from trees since the beginning. Trees give us life as they exhale oxygen. Trees give us warmth as we burn the wood to create heat. The branches and trunks provide a material that we use for shelter. Seeds from trees start the cycle again. We owe our existence to the trees.
- Along the way we have found wood to be not only useful, but beautiful at the same time. A thick slab of honey locust as seen in the photo above can be made into a table or fireplace mantle which could be functional part of a home for many years, yet at the same time cause one to wonder at the mystery and beauty of nature.
- Figure is by definition, quite simply, how wood looks. Some wood is considered plain if the figure is simple with straight lines formed by wood grain that is long with very little curvature over the length of the board. When the surface of a piece wood has wild waves and curves to the grain it is often called "figured wood". To say a piece of wood is "figured" is not quite right. Some descriptions of wild and strange figure include words like, fiddle-back, curly, birds-eye, and compression. Other times we find ourselves describing the figure in terms of where the wood was located on the tree such as with a crotch figure which is located near where a sizable branch grew from the trunk. Sometimes when a tree sustains an injury a strange and twisted growth called a burl will begin to form. As a burl grows, it incorporates the tree’s undeveloped buds that surround it and folds them into its expanding form. In all wood there is some level of the three dimensional shimmering effect that is known as chatoyancy, from the French language meaning "cats eye". Wood with large amounts of chatoyant figure is often the most prized among woodworkers.
- The figure of wood, it's the way wood looks, individual and unique, beautiful and sublime, reminding us of nature that surrounds us.