Spalted Applewood cup.

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This is a really small bowl, which I'm calling a cup. It's about 3.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall. This is wood from an Apple tree in my backyard. The wood is "spalted" which is a coloration of the wood caused by fungal growth inside the dead wood. It is the early stages of wood rotting. The spalted portion of the wood is usually softer than the surrounding wood, and that causes tear-out when turning wood. Not a desired outcome. Unfortunately there's not much one can do about it. Anyway, in this case I thought I would take advantage of this undesirable condition in the wood and do something creative with it. I thought I'd accentuate those cracks and tear-out voids with acrylic paint, because there is a pattern to it. I used a copper metallic acrylic paint. It looks rather good I think. Here's a shot of the other side of the cup.

Questions and feedback are always welcome. See more of my art at my web site: tesserak.net