Spalted Sugar Maple Pot

Spalted Sugar Maple Pot

This Sugar Maple pot in the style of Southwest American Indian pottery measures 10 inches in width and 6.5 inches in height. It just happened on the spur of the moment. I went to my shop one morning and my neighbor in the bay right next to mine, who happens to be the son of the owner of my shop, told me that he had to cut a sugar maple not 15 yards from the shop. It was dying from the top down which seems to be how maples die here in the north country of Vermont.

Since there was dead in the top, moisture and fungus had invaded the central core of the tree and produced what we call spalted wood. The fungus is responsible for the wild color variation in what tends to be rather plain coloration of healthy maple wood. This piece of wood came from near the base of the tree. He asked me if I had any use for the piece and I replied that I thought so.

Here is what was lurking in that wood. It is a riot of altered color. The spalting was not very advanced so even though the wood was spectacular in appearance it was still very firm and did not tend to tear out as more advanced spalting tends to do. So it accepted a nice finish.

There is nothing new under the sun. Every design that could be has already been done. The American Indians of the southwest have given us a treasure trove of designs which are so pleasing to the eye. I never get tired of looking at them. Probably they got them from someone else. So, I never claim originality of design. Yet I am of the opinion that a good reproduction is better than a bad original.

Spalted Sugar Maple Pot