Dreams were believed to be a divine gift, and the elm was thought to guide us through our dreams and expand consciousness.

For the ancient Greeks and Romans, the elm was the tree of Oneiros, the son of the night and God of dreams. The elm was the tree of sleep, dreams, and death for them. Due to this powerful meaning within these cultures, the elm was said to have oracle powers – a psychic tree that was believed to possess the ability to predict future events.

Burl wood is anything but average. The swirls, twirls, and eyes dancing in the bark all create a unique, highly figured wood grain. A burl is an unusual-looking collection of tree cells. These are callous tissues. These are formed usually as a response to environmental damage such as injury or fungal colonies. The callous tissue then forms burls that are so admired.

The term derives from the French word “chatoyer”, which means “to iridesce, like a cat’s eye.” If you’ve ever seen the stone tiger’s eye, you get the idea. In woodworking, chatoyance is a similarly striking optical quality in which areas of light and dark grain seemingly shimmer or shift depending on the angle of view.