Exotic wood for the Toys

I am so excited I just acquired a bunch of "curly maple". Normally my toys are made with hard maple. Curly maple is sometimes referred to as Tiger maple, or flame maple. No matter which name is used it is considered an exotic wood. It is a rare phenomenon that occurs during the growth of a hard maple tree. The result is that there are beautiful iridescent lines in the wood.

This wood is usually used to make fancy guitars, violins, or very fine furniture. A friend who runs a lumber mill about an hour from here gave me the wood otherwise I couldn't have afforded to use this wood without significantly raising my toy prices.
Most of my clients will not be familiar enough with lumber to realize how rare it is but I think everyone will enjoy the beautiful iridescent look.
I also received a single board of "bird's eye Maple" an even more rare phenomenon where little circles are found scattered through out the grain. I have yet to decide what to to make with that board.
So if you are ordering toys in the near future, It is very likely that you will get "curly maple" animals. I am very excited.

Here are some of the first toys made from the Curly maple.
In the lighting of these pictures the animals whose stripes are running vertically are very noticeable, the pieces whose stripes run horizontal were not as visible in the pictures. Interestingly enough when handling them they looked about the same.
Here is a wolverine in honor of Wolverine hardwoods where the lumber came from:

If you would like to purchase toys made of the Curly maple just mention your preference in the note to seller when purchasing from my Etsy shop. Remember the exact striping will be unique to each piece. As always there are no chemicals, dyes or finish on any of the toys I sell. The toys you see are just 100% wood.

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