How the wood holds the work

Every band is incised into hardwood first; the tukula red is rubbed in afterward, so the geometry survives even when the pigment wears thin.

A matte hand-rubbed sheen deepens the calabash brown over decades — no plastic gloss, no sealed top coat to crack.

Interlace, lozenge and chevron bands are sequenced like a phrase — the maker varies them so the eye keeps reading down the panel.

Made to hold camwood paste for the body, the same vessel is kept generations later for the depth of its worked surface alone.