Been working on a couple of pieces of Oak that I'm almost finished with. The top one was pretty much bark removal to reveal the swirling threads beneath. The second one was also mostly bark removal from the back part to reveal a moon-like surface. The part I'm showing is a cross section of the branch that this ball was growing on. There are around 100 rings visible meaning that this strange growth started around the 1920's. 

    I'm working on another piece of Oak that's also getting its bark removed. Unfortunately that piece was cut at the wrong time of the year for the bark to be easily removed (The two above were cut at the right time of the year for the bark to come off easily)(Bonus points for knowing what those cutting times are). This makes it a slow punishing process to expose the burl for viewing. I love these because once they're completed you can spend hours contemplating their complexity. The only problem used to be the amount of time I'd invest for a project that failed to launch and the only reason I worried about it was I had a limited amount of free time to invest in something that ended up being firewood. That reason is no longer valid so I'm enjoying rediscovering one of my favorite pass times. For me it's like meditation when I'm in the zone. Just sayin'.