Hello Wild Soul,
I just wanted to tell you a little more about our collection of Oak pendants that will be in store a little later today, Saturday 20th June at 10am.
As I mentioned in our previous post, we have felt so drawn to the stable and grounding energy of the iconic Oak tree in the run up to the Summer Solstice. It feels like the perfect tree ally to work with at a time that can often be filled with intensity, heat and movement.
We have created 5 pieces smoothed from an ancient piece of bone Oak, and I wanted to share a little more with you about what exactly bone Oak is. Let’s dive in…
What is bone Oak?
Oak is known to be one of the strongest and most durable woods in the world, and sometimes they go through processes which make them even stronger.
There is a natural survival strategy that ancient Oak trees will sometimes adopt called ‘retrenchment’. This is where a tree will withdraw their energy from their higher branches, drawing it back down to ensure they nourish the branches closest to their core.
This is the opposite process to when a younger tree is prioritising the growth of its higher branches, expanding out into the world.
You may cross paths with one of these wise old trees and notice old, bare branches that protrude from the top of their canopies. They are sometimes described as ‘stag heads’.
These special trees remind me that we cannot always pour our energy into everything all at once, and that sometimes, to preserve our energy and maintain our strength, we may need to shed parts of ourselves.
But what has this got to do with bone Oak, I hear you ask? Well, when the outer sapwood of these higher branches dry out through weathering, you are left with the inner heartwood of the tree, which has become ‘as hard as bone’ earning it the name ‘bone Oak’.
We felt very lucky to come across a recently fallen branch of bone Oak and have worked with it to create these pieces. You will notice the deep colour and stunning grains and markings that have evolved in the wood over many years.
We have worked with the wood in different ways for these pieces. We felt called to shape two of them to nestle perfectly into the palm…
We also wanted to celebrate the natural form of the bone Oak, highlighting the indents where the sapwood has worn away and left the inner heartwood. It reminds me that the processes of weathering and change can ignite inner strength…
We hope you love them as much as we have crafting them (we of course made two for ourselves and haven’t taken them off since!)
I hope you all find an Oak to greet this midsummer,
Nic x
Catch up with…
Find out more about our Wild Jewellery here:
Wild Fen 