My passion are deciduous trees and in particular Hawthorns, regular readers of this blog will be familiar with many of the hawthorns in my collection, this post is about the Raft and the Uro (holes) I have created over many years. I am not an advocate of jins on deciduous trees, mostly because the wood is soft and will rot in a very short time making the work pointless. This is different for hardwood trees such as Oak, Yew, Juniper where carving can enhance the appearance.

When I create an Uro I cut deep into the tree to make a ‘dark’ interior, I want to create shadows and character. I also seal the cut with paste because I want callusing to occur, I want the callus to ‘roll over’ the hole. In some instances, the Uro has been completely seals by the callus.