Nature provides examples of beauty in many forms.  From the grandeur of canyons and mountains, to plant and wildlife that varies by the regional environment, we are surrounded by examples, many of which escape our daily viewing.  Trees of great variety are typically around all of us.  They provide shade relief from the heat of day, and shouldering of the winds while showing off the beauty in their foliage and providing bounty in their fruit. 

However, when trees come down thru disease or disaster, they can still leave a lasting legacy to their existence.  The ability to transform the wood from these trees into enduring forms of both utility and art, is my goal. 

Spalted wood has been a favorite of mine after first experiencing the black line spalting in a poplar tree trunk from a diseased tree that was taken down several years ago at our home when we lived in North Carolina.  While I first considered this wood to be 'rotten', I was soon educated on the beauty that lies under the surface of these woods that contain spalting.  The degree and variation of spalting in wood is as unique as your fingerprints, and literally no two examples will look exactly the same.   The process of creating spalted wood is as much (perhaps more) art than science, ...knowing when to stop the process and cut into a piece is often a game of chance on whether the process should have continued, is just right, or was allowed to go too long and the wood has been rendered unusable. Spalted wood isn't my only choice of wood, but it is certainly one of my favorites.

I hope you enjoy browsing the galleries of work in the site and please let me know if you have any questions.  Items shown as not being available may still be able to be reproduced, but with subtle differences for variation in material.

Tim Rinehart 

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