Paulownia Wood Jewelry Clasp

This is a non-native species to North America that got here in shipping crates for Chinese export porcelain hundreds of years ago. The seed pods make excellent packing material like our plastic peanuts of today. Of course the pods were filled with billions of seeds and these got dumped after the china was removed.

Paulowinia is a legume and a pioneer species;. It will grow where other trees can’t make it and improve the soil for their subsequent succession. You can see these trees with their large, purple blossoms growing along rail road and highways. In asia, the tree is highly revered.

The wood is especially valuable for making fine boxes with lids. Since the wood hardly expands or contracts with varying humidity and temperature, it is ideally suited for box-making. With paulownia wood, the lid doesn't get swollen shut on the box.

This clasp is made from a section through the crotch of the tree and this produces the interesting pattern. Otherwise the wood is not as pretty as most of out native species.