Secrets in Wood

It's almost unbelievable how many different colours, textures and shapes wood can hold. And not just the carpentry kind, the kind used for furniture, chopped, peeled, sawn, cut, dried and processed by the hands of craftsmen and machines. It is also the wood that is left behind after this first process, abandoned and unnecessary. We often stumble across it when we go for walks, for picking mushrooms, in the mountains and even on the beaches. The wind, the rain, the sun, the snow, the time, they put it in our way.

This wood is particularly mysterious because it has undergone additional treatment by nature before it finds its way to us. It may have been broken by a storm, hardened by the cold, attacked by a bark beetle, eaten by a parasite. Finally, there is the wood that is most often outside our front door, the wood we burn for firewood. All this wood has the potential to be worked and made into something beautiful and unique.

I use locally sourced wood, most of which I cut, harvest, cut and dry myself: beech, ash, maple, chestnut, acacia, oak, cherry, fig, plum, linden, juniper, birch, peach, apricot, larch.

I process and shape the wood on a lathe. When shaping, I often use epoxy resin to fill in any structural defects or to highlight the special features of a piece of wood.

I try to make as many different things as possible, it usually starts with the look and shape of the wood and an idea. This leads to vases, bowls, platters, grinders, other useful and decorative pieces.

It is my hobby and I enjoy it very much.

Dejan Košuta