About Prickly Juniper (Juniperus Oxycedrus)

My favourite wood is Juniper burl. Prickly Juniper is an evergreen conifer mainly found along the Mediterranean coast and it varies between bush and tree. It can obtain 15m in height. I collect the roots on Formentera where I have thanks to my beloved girlfriend Eva time and chance to look for these wonderful pieces. I exclusevely pick dead wood. Due to the scarce vegetation of the island it would be a crime to cut any living plant. Anyway, it would have to dry for several years until one could use it for carving. The Ukrainian Netsuke carver Sergey Osipov even puts it this way:” Freshly cut wood does not have balanced energy. The prematurely "killed" plant continues to absorb energy from the environment instead of giving into its surroundings the thin vibrations of solar energy..” Well, I’m not a mystic, but having worked with Juniper for a while now I think I know what he means. I have a root here that still had a tiny little branch with five green needles on  when I found it. I took it. And I will never do again! Even after two years now the wood still seems alive somehow...!

The silverish roots have alrady been decorticated by the weather exposed to for at least 10 - 20 years. And I guess it takes several hundred years of growing until a diameter of 30cm has been reached. The only rainy season is from october to march/april. Even then it is not really a humid area, but that’s the time when the island is green for a few months. It’s the only period of growth, and juniper is not known for growing fast! The rest of the year it is dry like a desert.

Burly roots are quite rare. Not every Prickly Juniper develops one and you really have to get deep into the shrubbery in hope to find some dead bushes. Still you haven’t got it out of the dry and rocky soil, yet! It takes a spade or  a pick for the  bigger ones. When its finally done I already have developed a certain connectivity with every root before I even started working on them...

The beautiful texture and the incredible smell makes sculpting a special experience. They give aroma to my whole flat :)

Big solid root for a Juniper. 26 cm in diameter. Rare to find!

First I have to get the bark and the rotten wood off. I also try to remove soil and stone inclusion at this stage. Then I can see the shape of the wood left to be used and put it aside for a while. On the one hand to look at it and let the impression work on me. It’s quite a change already when the roots are prepared like that. On the other hand I found out that the wood after this treatment starts kind of ‘breathing’ again. The cut surface all of a sudden absorbs humidity again and the wood moves. Not much, but enough to cause problems in thinner carvings and especially with inlays. When I’m ready for a certain piece I can start working on it. You never know when that happens :) I have quite a few roots at this stage lying around here...

Big solid specimens like the football sized one above  are rare to find. I cannot really plan sth like a sculptor eg working with basswood. It’s the grotesque shape and certainly the grain that gives the inspiration. The wood shows me the way and with a little imagination I find several stimuli to create sth out of it.                                                                                  Sometimes it seems a pity to treat them at all..