Ring Around the Heartwood

The recipe box project, featured in the End Grain Studios gallery, touts a bold display of how heartwood and sapwood can create brilliant contrast.

You’ve all counted growth rings on a tree before (if not, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re missing a part of your childhood). The new growth of a tree creates the outer rings; which is called sapwood. In some cased it its a lighter color than the darker older rings called the heartwood.

The tree goes through a process to protect itself from decay. During this process the heartwood turns a darker color. For furniture makers, the contrasting colors between the sapwood and heartwood can be used as a valued visual feature.

Think about this: A tree gets chopped down, milled, and sent to End Grain Studios to be turned into a piece of art. The final product will incorporate a range of woods from the heartwood (maybe one hundred years old) to the fresh sapwood (maybe only a year old) and will now live in your and your childrens’ homes for hundreds of more years. How cool is that?