Handmade Wooden Homeware

The figure on this burr elm vase sweeps up the sides in long swirling bands of brown - with a warming hue.The burr contains some nice tight clusters and came off an elm in Pitlochry.

The body tapers down to a small turned foot. Which means the vase lifts slightly rather than sitting flat.

Around the top the live edge of the burr stands out. A sharp contrast above the smooth wood below. There's enough happening on the surface that it holds its own with nothing in it at all.

It also comes with a glass insert, so it takes fresh flowers as well as dried. The glass drops in and lifts out, so you can fill it at the tap and put it back. A single stem or a small bunch of gypsophila suits the opening.

Bark edges are naturally uneven and rough to the touch, and burr carries small voids and dark inclusions.

Burr elm from Pitlochry. 19cm tall, 7.5cm across. Glass insert 30mm x 100mm, sitting in a 32mm x 100mm hole.

Finished with a blend of beeswax, plant-based linseed oil and aromatic orange oil.

The burr for this one came off an elm in Pitlochry. Possibly one of the densest figure I've had on the lathe this year.

The form is round and deep, curving in at the base so it sits low with a strong weighted presence.

The outside is a warm hue with a pale sweep of clear grain running across one face. The rest is packed with tight clusters of burr-eyes. Some of them are dark right through.

The rim features the bark of the tree. Dark and craggy. It drops in a deep dip on one side, so the wall is much lower there than on the opposite. The vessel has a small foot which helps to elevate it ever so slightly - and create a shadow line.

It's a piece to leave out and admire as the day's light shifts in the room. Bark edges are naturally uneven and rough to the touch, and burr this dense carries voids and dark inclusions running into the wall.

A small bud vase, turned thin, which would look elegant on a shelf or a windowsill.

The wood is burr elm, warm almost amber down the body with darker streaks running through it.

Featuring a live edge top, with one side that drops down the wall in a long split rather than cutting straight across.

That gives the vase a front and a back, which is unusual, and it means where you point it changes how it looks. There are a few dark pips low on the body where the burr was busiest.

With a 32mm hole, this can take dried grass or a few seed heads.

This isn't watertight and isn't meant for fresh flowers or water. Bark edges are naturally uneven and a little rough, and burr wood carries small voids and inclusions.

A burr elm vessel with the tree's bark left in place around the rim.

Burr elm is the wood I look forward to most. This piece is a warm reddish brown, covered in tight swirling eyes and small dark pips. The contrasting bark sits against it. The figure runs right round, so there's no back to turn to the wall. Turn it a quarter and it's a different piece.

It suits a shelf, a table or a mantelpiece. Bark edges are naturally uneven and a little rough to the touch, and burr wood carries small voids and dark inclusions.

Both are part of the tree and neither affects how the piece holds together.

An ash bowl with figure. One to leave out on the table rather than shut away in a cupboard.

The grain reads as wide bands sweeping right round the outside, pale cream through to soft honey, and it shifts as you turn the bowl in your hands. Near the rim there's a paler fleck, with fine speckling scattered through the grain below it.

Low enough to sit on a table without getting in the way.

Marks like these come with the timber rather than anything done to it. They're natural to solid wood and don't affect how the bowl is used or how well it holds together.

Approx. 14.5 cm diameter x 7 cm height.

An ash bowl for the things that collect by the front door - keys, coins, the odd stray screw.

Ash is pale cream, and the grain here runs round the outside in clean lines rather than swirls, so the shape stays the main event.

Low in one side there's a small knot, dark against the pale wood - but smooth under your thumb. It's where a branch once left the trunk, and it's how you'll always know this bowl from any other.

Good for nuts and fruit on the table, or for whatever needs a home around the house.

Knots like this are natural to solid wood. It's sound and sealed under the finish, and it doesn't affect how the bowl is used or how well it holds together.

Approx. 14.5 cm diameter x 7 cm height.

Hand-turned from a single block of Scottish sycamore. Perhaps the palest of the native hardwoods, with a creamy white with a close, even grain and very little figure to distract from the shape.

Sycamore has been the wood for kitchen treen for centuries because it's odourless and won't taint what is put in them. With a rounded belly perfect for nuts, crisps or trinkets.

There's some light discolouration to it – a faint shadow picked up while the timber was drying.

It tells a story - a part of the tree's history and doesn't affect how the bowl works.

Hand-turned from a single block of quarter sawn oak. Cutting the board through the growth rings brings the medullary rays to the surface. The fine silver flecks you can see running across the grain. This one came out unusually pale and even.

With a chamfered underside so it sits light on the table. A dish for keys, rings, salt, olives - whatever lands on it.

Finished with a food-safe hard wax and oil blend - for a soft sheen and everyday durability.