Mesquite bowl, 8.75" in diameter

This is one of the most rustic pieces I’ve made. I turned it from a weathered, roughly split chunk of mesquite. I left the top surface as I found it, except for cutting the small bowl into it. The exterior I shaped and polished, except for the bandsawn flat areas, which, again, I left as I found them, and, of course the bug holes that I exposed in the turning. I tell you, cleaning out every one of those holes took some real patience. All in all, achieving the rustic look of the bowl took a lot more work than one would expect. It was worth it, though. I really like the contrast between the polished and raw surfaces. I left the wood without finish, but whoever adopts this piece may want to oil just the smooth surfaces; doing so would deepen the color of that wood and so heighten the contrast with the sun-bleached rough top.