go to main page           go to bowl index page

(normally, this window is loaded as a pop-up, so you should just close it)

Chatoyancy / chatoyance: the property whereby something reflects light quite differently depending on the viewing angle. With wood, this can be really striking, especially in pieces with ray flakes, which can go from dark to light as you move the wood's angle in the light. On wood with large ray flakes, the flakes themselves can change color in an obvious and attractive fashion, but where chatoyance really applies is in woods with multitudinous small ray flakes that cause the entire surface of the wood to change as you move it in the light. It gives the wood a "shimmer" that just can't be captured by still photographs. There are other wood grain characteristics that can create chatoyance besides ray flakes. It can be particularly striking in woods that have "interlocked grain" that creates a "mottle" figure and it can also show up in woods with a "curly" figure. Going into the details of interlocking and mottle and the reasons for curl seems far afield from bowls so I'm not going to get into those details. The point is that wood can have chatoyance for quite a few different reasons and it can be wonderful to behold.


sipo (with a polyurethane finish) showing multitudinous small ray flakes that create a very strong chatoyance

click on the image to enlarge it

chatoyance in an oak bowl

In this very short clip (which repeats 5 times) the ray flakes start off as clearly light-colored
on a darker background and then due to chatoyance change to dark-colored on a lighter background

chatoyance in various woods

In this 6 second clip (which repeats once) chatoyance is shown in yellowheart, zebrawood, sips, and chechem woods