The Box Elder tree is a variety of maple tree, also known as Boxelder Maple and Maple Ash. A small, fast-growing, and short-lived tree, it has generally weak wood with little use commercially, except for the burls, which have beautiful coloring and grain patterns. The photo is from a dyed box elder burl where they impregnate it with a colored dye. In addition to blue, the dyed box elder burls are available in yellow, red, black, green, purple, brown, and magenta. The burl structure does not dye uniformly, so the turning process will expose layer after layer of unique patterns and contrasting shades of the same range of colors.Thursday, December 24, 2009
Box Elder Burl
The Box Elder tree is a variety of maple tree, also known as Boxelder Maple and Maple Ash. A small, fast-growing, and short-lived tree, it has generally weak wood with little use commercially, except for the burls, which have beautiful coloring and grain patterns. The photo is from a dyed box elder burl where they impregnate it with a colored dye. In addition to blue, the dyed box elder burls are available in yellow, red, black, green, purple, brown, and magenta. The burl structure does not dye uniformly, so the turning process will expose layer after layer of unique patterns and contrasting shades of the same range of colors.
