Carved from Mesquite wood that I salvaged from my family’s ranch in Sonora, Texas, this vase preserves a piece of wood that was headed for the burn pile. Its surface is marked by small holes and tunnels left by the emerald ash borer—an invasive beetle—so the material carries a visible record of what threatened it. Finished and shaped into a clean vessel form, the piece holds a tension between polish and scar: a functional object that keeps the story of place, damage, and rescue intact.