Decorative and practical crafts created from bois d’arc and other wood will be on display at the Commerce City Hall from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.  Members of the Bois d’Arc Capital Crafters will be displaying, selling, and demonstrating techniques for their transformations of North America’s strongest, heaviest, and most durable tree.

Several bois d’arc craftsmen will be discussing their enthusiasm for the native tree and exhibiting their creations.  Among the crafters will be Dr. Jerry Lytle, who grew up on a farm near Commerce intrigued by the grain, contours, and mystique of bois d’arc. 

In segments of bois d’arc, Jerry Lytle recognizes potential designs to accentuate with his chisel by cutting through bark, sapwood, and heartwood.  The results are what he calls unique décor pieces.  The craftsman also has paper weights, walking sticks, walking canes.  Popular among children are “forever sticks,” short lengths of polished bois d’arc accompanied by a laminated greeting card explaining how the wood will last forever, just like the donor’s love. 

Members of the Lytle family have donated a seventy-foot length of a bois d’arc tree trunk for a new park in the downtown area on Main Street in front of the City Hall.  Jerry Lytle prepared the specimen for display.  

Dr. Jim Conrad, recognized as “the man in the bois d’arc suit, will demonstrate how he makes flowers from horse apples, paper from different parts of the tree, and dye from roots and bark.

Art Hendrix, a member of the Hunt County Woodturners Association as well as a bois d’arc crafter, has a variety of wooden creations, many of them made from bois d’arc.  On his lathe, he has turned pens, pencils, vases, bowls, key rings, ring holders, bottle stoppers, Christmas ornaments, and cheese board mice.

Kent and Jay Garrett have designed tables, chairs, stools, kitchen utensils, oversized pencils for children, rolling pins, attitude adjusters, herds of reindeer as lawn decor, name plates for desks and a variety of signs, many expressing traditional Texas attitudes.

Dr. Fred Tarpley will have copies of Wood Eternal, a comprehensive book about the history, lore, uses, and botanical uniqueness of the bois d’arc tree, also known as Osage orange, hedge apple, and horse apple. 

The bois d’arc tree has been celebrated by the Commerce Bois d’Arc Bash for twenty-seven years, the state legislature has designated the town the bois d’arc Capital of Texas, and the area is developing a reputation for its crafts and research related to the tree, Tarpley explains.