Cherry Wood Cactus

A few years ago I was reading in bed and my folks were in town. My mom and I heard a large crack during a storm and shrugged, “That was a large branch…”

Come morning I realized I had lost an entire cherry tree. It was straight and beautiful and luckily didn’t hit my shed or power box when it came down.

I found a guy on Craigslist (yes I know how that sounds) who came and took the tree out for me. I told him he could use the wood and sell it for whatever profit if I got to take some boards.

A few months later, I picked out some pieces that I liked and left them to dry longer under a bed in my guest room. The original plan was to make a working desk out of the two largest pieces, but then I was gifted a beautiful live edge table and shifted plans to think of other ways to use the wood.

So when I was traveling to Utah last year, I saw this beauty in a shop and fell in love. I already have several “plants” in my home made out of alternative materials, so this wooden giant struck my fancy. I decided that when I came home, I’d try to make a mini version fit for my little laneview home.

I made a prototype out of cardboard and labeled all the pieces. I wanted each one to be able to swivel and move around so I could play with it. I handed it off to my dad and he got to work using the cherry tree’s wood that I’d been saving.

I think what he made is magic! We just put a small coating of tung oil on the wood so the color and tones shine out perfectly. I named him Bryce for one of the Utah parks from the trip that inspired his creation.

Each little piece has a ton of character. There are natural notches and gradients in the wood that I just love.

Bryce is now next to me in my bedroom and I swivel each piece ever so slightly when I wake up. Hope he likes his new home.