An Derowen Aspier - The Oak Observer

20cm x 15cm

A deep, cauldron-like vessel turned from Cornish oak, with a hand-carved and tool-textured interior that invites the hand as much as the eye. The rim carries a gentle wave and a rough natural patch left deliberately, a reminder that not every edge is meant to be smoothed.

The exterior is painted in a vibrant deep sea teal using traditional milk paint, then sealed with food-safe oil and Cornish beeswax. Two handles are fixed at the shoulders, forged from recycled copper sheet, hammered on an anvil, and shaped by hand.

Each handle is patinated using seawater to coax the copper into a salt-touched blue-green, as if it had rested on the seabed for centuries. They are riveted in place with copper boat nails and roves, peened and flared by hand, a method borrowed from traditional boatbuilding.

This vessel carries the feel of something half-remembered: a tide-worn relic, an offering bowl, or a storage jar recovered from the shoreline. A piece that stands with quiet presence, practical in form, mythic in feel.

Made slowly, and made to endure.