A Christmas-experiment-gone-happily-right, these little cups were made from a mysterious chunk of softwood that was tucked away in a corner of the workshop when we moved in to the old house.
From the scent (like cedar, but not quite), the incredible tightness of the grain (very, very old tree), and the softness of the surface (these cups had to be finished straight off the turning gouge–no sandpaper allowed), my best guess is that a timber or two of Redwood somehow made its way out East from the West Coast. And there sat, gathering dust in this small workshop, for many, many years.
I made these in two variations: one a small salt cellar for some dear friends to keep by their stove, the others as measuring cups for my partner. The flattened handle gives a surprisingly pleasant hold and the intersecting geometries catch light and cast shadow in richly dynamic ways. We keep ours on the dining table and I never tire of simply rotating them around to see how the light falls when turned this way or that.
softpaths.blog 
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