Natural colour green wood
What is green wood?
Occurring completely naturally and foraged from my local area, this green 'spalted' wood has a long history as a decorative wood, but it's rare to find in use today.
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The wood itself can be oak, pine or birch and in my local area the one I find most is from silver birch.
What makes the wood green?
The wood is 'spalted', which means that a naturally occurring fungus has entered the wood and changed the appearance of it. In this piece of wood, there are actually two kinds of spalting, each caused by a different kind of wild fungus. The network of black lines running across the wood is caused by the first fungus, and the patches of green colour are caused by the second fungus.
How is jewellery made from the green wood?
The wood needs to be carefully prepared to ensure that its natural beauty can be shown at its best, and that the material can stand up to normal jewellery use.
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The wood is completely dried, and resin stabilised. The rough pieces are then cut into slices or blocks, and then very carefully the shapes of the pieces are selected to make the most of each section's unique patterning. They are cut out using traditional hand tools, and sanded into their final shape. Finally, they will be given a multi-layer transparent varnish coating.
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A setting, usually sterling silver, now needs to be hand made to exactly match each unique wood piece.
