• The Witness West Virginia White Oak turnabout shot glass showing the full reversible form, natural knot, and prominent oak rays
  • The Witness White Oak turnabout shot glass with sweeping diagonal ray figure across the larger vessel
  • The Witness showing curved oak ray figure across both drinking ends and the narrowed center
  • The Witness White Oak turnabout vessel showing straight grain through both chambers and the narrow waist
  • Large drinking end of The Witness showing the rounded rim, deep chamber, and oak end-grain rays
  • Small drinking end of The Witness showing the tasting chamber and dense oak ray figure around the rim
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The Witness — West Virginia White Oak Turnabout Shot Glass

The Witness — West Virginia White Oak Turnabout Shot Glass

West Virginia White Oak Turnabout Shot Glass

$60.00 USD
$60.00 USD
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Story / Provenance

White Oak once stood among the trees used to witness boundaries in the forests of what became West Virginia—living markers of place, recorded because they endured.

This piece carries its own kind of record.

The wood came from a West Virginia source who gathered Oak, Walnut, and Hickory from the region. Somewhere in the middle of this unusually tall blank, however, a substantial section was missing. Removing the entire damaged portion would also have meant giving up much of the sound wood around it.

So the void became part of the design.

Rather than shortening the blank, I turned through the interruption and followed what remained. A narrow waist emerged where the missing wood had been, leaving a vessel at either end.

White Oak was the most frequently recorded witness-tree species in a U.S. Forest Service study of early surveys from land that later became the Monongahela National Forest.

About This Piece

The larger end is the natural home for a pour of whiskey. Turn The Witness over and the smaller end offers another possibility—a tasting pour, aperitif, digestif, or simply the unexpected second vessel left behind by the making.

The knot still crosses the transition around the narrowed center, almost marking where the original blank changed course.

And then there is the grain.

Broad oak rays sweep through the piece with spectacular figure, catching the light differently as the vessel turns. In a wood once used to mark boundaries and place, those visible lines feel especially appropriate: another record held in the material.

The Witness belongs to The Gathering because its story is not simply about where the wood came from. It is about what was gathered, what was lost, and what was worth keeping.

Details

Wood: White Oak, white-oak group (Quercus spp.)
Origin: West Virginia
Dimensions: Approx. 5-1/4" tall × 2" diameter
Construction: Hand-turned, one of one
Form: Turnabout vessel with drinking chambers at both ends
Wood treatment: Stabilized
Finish: Walnut oil, beeswax, and carnauba wax
Collection: The Gathering

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