Box

Box (Buxus sempervirens) is a small evergreen tree or shrub native to the British Isles. In its natural state it appears an unremarkable sort of tree:

But it is likely to be familiar to all as the dense shrub commonly used to create topiary.

It is extremely slow-growing and yields a wood so dense and close-grained that when green it sinks in water. The colours of box wood vary from deep greys and reddish browns to a golden, buttery yellow. Its grain patterns display fantastic whorls and shadows, particularly in wood harvested from the cooler climate of the North of Scotland where it grows very slowly indeed. 

Box wood has long been favoured for carving and turning due to its strength, resilience and fine grain. It was the original material used for woodcuts and woodblock printing. In the past it was commonly used in the making of musical instruments, among them recorders, wooden flutes and the Great Highland Bagpipes, but the difficulty of finding sizeable pieces of this wood and the trend of 

using imported exotic hardwoods has made this relatively uncommon.

A boxwood flute

I gather most of my boxwood from an overgrown box hedge growing round a derelict cottage near an area known as the Cabrach in Aberdeenshire. The cottage was part of a tiny village on a hill that was abandoned after World War One, after most of its menfolk never returned. Amongst the crumbling houses are the remains of even earlier dwellings whose inhabitants were forced to leave during the Highland Clearances. There is a real sense of  sadness and history about the place.

The box hedge has slowly grown to immense size and whenever I gather the dead wood from its disorderly tangle I think of the people who planted it, all those years ago, around their cottage in the village on the hill.

This two-prong fork is made from the Aberdeenshire boxwood and it displays the lovely flame-like grain patterns characteristic of the wood I collect up there. Modelled by my Mum.

I made this curvy boxwood three-prong hair fork from wood I collected in the beautiful Vallée d'Aspe in the French Pyrenees. Modelled by Ro in the Pennine hills.