Metal Stained English Oak with a Boxwood Lid

The dark staining in this piece is caused by a reaction between a metal object or in this case objects and the natural tannins in Oak.

When this tree was young someone dropped some hand forged nails into the fork of the tree, over the next century or so the tree grew around them, the tannins reacted with the metal resulting in the blacks, browns and some very subtle green colouration.
The lump of wood this came from had been sitting around for a few years and had developed a lot of cracks. I like to do what I call 'Kintsuggi for wood"  filling the split with bronze epoxy making a feature of it.
Kintsugi being the ancient Japanese art of repair, broken porcelain is glued together and the cracks accentuted with powdered gold making a feature of them.

The lid is English Boxwood with a corresponding Holly threaded collar, it's finished with four coats of an eco-frriendly hardwax oil which needs no maintenance other than. the occasional dusting.

It measures 135mm H x 115mm D and has a capacity of 300ml.