All our pieces are topped with a beautiful, bark edged wood bowl.

These bowls are always unique as they are handmade and carved into the side of a tree trunk, thus allowing them to keep the bark edge , forming the crown of any piece.

Crucial to the process of making our wooden bowls is the sourcing of the raw material. All our wood turners live and work close to the forest where the timber is sourced. The tree needs to be felled in winter, when the juices are in the ground. This makes for a dryer trunk, allowing the bark to stick on better.

Once felled, the trunks are split and left to dry outdoors with a roof on for about half a year. After the summer they are moved in and left to dry for up to 12 months. Now the bark will hold and the wood can be worked into a crown bowl.

The soft wood creates a beautiful contrast to the shiny hard glass.

Acacia, Alder, Birch , Curly Birch, Larch and Oak

Acacia | *Acacia sensu lato*

Acacia is a richly orange wood.
It has a white sap and a thick bark.
At Utopia we usually worked with fumed Acacia.
For this process the finished bowls are fumed with Ammonia to achieve a deep dark colour and a strong contrast between sapwood and the heart wood.
(Sap wood is the outer layer below the bark which is responsible for the transportation of water and minerals)

Alder | *Alnus Betulaceae*

Often growing on the shores of the Finnish lakes, alder is a popular timber in our sauna building culture as it is perfectly suited for the cladding and benches of the interior.
Alder is a slightly orange wood, so it has a warm tinge and a dark bark. It is difficult to source so we go into the forest and along the lakes and buy individual lots from local farmers.

Birch | *Betula* *Betulaceae*

Birch, the most Finnish of timbers, is our national tree and shapes our landscapes. White trunked forests with light green leaves are the soul landscape of us Finns.
The timber is super strong and even, with a thin bark that is characterised by its white satin surface. Many older trees have rougher patches of trunk, where the colour is already brown and rough. We like to use these parts to achieve a more prominent crown

We choose the woodworker according to the timber that grows locally to him.
For the Acacia and Oak bowls we work with Andreas in Germany. He is an independent wood turner and has his own dedicated workshop which he runs with his wife Simone.

For Alder, the types of Birch and Larch we work with Vesa, a retired farmer in North Karelia Finland . Vesa has converted his cow and pig stables into a workshop and works from home. He has 60+ years of experience in working with wood .