Small Laburnum Bowl

A diminutive bowl in laburnum, just four and a half inches across and two inches tall. Small it may be, but the grain patterns and colour are nothing short of fantastic - rich golden-brown shot through with darker waves of figure.

Laburnum is a small ornamental tree - the “golden chain” of cottage gardens, named for the trailing yellow blossom it throws out each spring - so its timber almost always comes in small pieces like this one. What it lacks in size it makes up for in drama: the heartwood runs from warm honey-gold to a deep chocolate-brown, often ringed by a thin band of pale sapwood, and the contrast is striking enough that furniture makers once prized laburnum as a home-grown substitute for ebony.

It carries a darker reputation too - laburnum is famously poisonous, with every part of the living tree, and the seeds especially, holding a toxic alkaloid. None of that survives into a finished piece, though: the timber is well seasoned and sealed under lacquer, so the bowl is perfectly safe to handle and use. The only real caution is back in the workshop, where a dust mask keeps the fine particles at bay - sensible practice with any wood.

The blank came from Ian Pope again, a fairly small offcut - but there are two more similar-sized pieces waiting their turn, so this little bowl may soon have some companions.

Finished with acrylic lacquer, which has given it a lovely shine and brought the depth of the laburnum right to the surface.