{"product_id":"bootleg","title":"Bootleg","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlmost two and a half feet of it, and barely a pound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA single length of driftwood, worn down to the hard center of itself, rising off a footed pine plinth with a slow bend near the top. Barnacles climb the shaft in a broken line — pale, ridged, still exactly where the sea set them, thickest where the water held it longest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt reads as a staff. Something carried, leaned on, handed down. Nothing was carved or shaped to make it look that way; it came out of the inlets along the North Carolina coast already finished, found on shrimping and fishing runs. The wood was sealed in polyurethane to preserve it as it was, then hand-set upright on a pine base.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFor an altar, or a room that holds one\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeight is what this piece gives you. It draws the eye up the way a candle does, and it takes almost no surface to do it — seven inches square at the foot. It works standing alone at the end of an altar, on the floor beside a chair, or anywhere a room needs a vertical without needing more furniture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eDetails\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDimensions: 7\" W × 7\" D × 28½\" H, including base\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWeight: 1 lb 2 oz\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMaterials: Natural driftwood with intact barnacles, polyurethane sealed finish, hand-built footed pine base, stained\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrigin: The coastal inlets of North Carolina\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePermanently mounted — the sculpture does not lift off the base\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOne of a kind — this piece will not be repeated\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe name is only one side\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eTurn this piece and it becomes something else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat is true of everything we make, and it is the reason none of these sculptures has a front. We name each one for what we saw first — the angle that stopped us. Rotate it a quarter turn and the figure you were looking at is gone, and a different one is standing there. Ridges become a face. A wing becomes a wave. A crowd becomes one body.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSo the name is our reading, not an instruction. Set it whichever way it speaks to you, and turn it again when it stops. People who live with these pieces tend to move them a few times a year without quite deciding to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eCarved by water\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot one line in this wood was cut by a blade. Every groove, hollow, and ridge was worked slowly — by salt, by tide, by years in the water — along a coast that has fed and carried people for generations. We think of these as pieces already carved by hands older than ours and left on the shore to be found.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat we do is small by comparison. We find them, we preserve them as they are, and we give them a base to stand on so they can be seen. Sometimes two pieces are set together because they belong together — but the wood itself is never cut, shaped, stained, or painted. Nothing is corrected. The wood says what it already had to say.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eCare\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDust with a dry, soft cloth and a light touch around the barnacles, which are original and fragile. Keep out of direct sunlight and away from moisture. For indoor display.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Red Velvet Pumpkin Patch","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53724156264741,"sku":"AA-002","price":275.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1230\/9797\/files\/Rod_Staff2AA-002.png?v=1788316660","url":"https:\/\/thevelvetpumpkin.com\/products\/bootleg","provider":"The Red Velvet Pumpkin Patch","version":"1.0","type":"link"}