About Us
Our Story
Our work is rooted in a passion for creating high-quality wood bowls. From harvesting local hardwood to turning by hand in our at-home workshop, we make our products with exceptional care. Mass-produced wood bowls often have flat featureless bottoms, a single basic sidewall curve, and unchanging wall thickness. We make our bowls with a distinct foot and rim, as these details indicate the craftsmanship put into each bowl. A properly sized foot gives the bowl the appearance of floating above the surface on which it sits. Compound curves, wide rims, and sidewall thickness variation all provide visual interest and make the bowl feel just right when held–easy and comfortable to grip with one hand. A wide rim frames the contents of the bowl rather than disappearing beneath them. Our wood bowls add an artisanal touch to your space, elevate your dining spreads, and make great gifts! We hope you’ll see for yourself the difference in a bowl made by a skilled artisan working with freehand tools on a lathe.
Our Process
Our wood bowls are environmentally friendly. We start with a freshly cut log from a local hardwood tree that is already being harvested for other reasons. We’ve sourced logs anywhere from neighbors removing trees to fallen ash trees in our own backyard! We buck the log into half rounds with a chainsaw, and then use a bandsaw to prepare the moisture-laden green wood for the lathe. On the lathe, we turn the green wood into a rough bowl shape, which enables the wood to dry faster. Then, the rough-turned bowl is set aside for 6-12 months to dry. Our rough-turned bowls are air dried naturally, so no fossil fuel is used for kiln drying. Once air dried, the rough-turned bowls are mounted back on the lathe and turned to final shape and thickness. We apply multiple coats of food-grade drying oils. Each coat of drying oil can take a week or longer to cure. Finally, we buff and wax the bowl to prepare it for sale. It is a long process, but we think it is worth the effort!
Care and Usage Information
Many of our bowls are intended for regular use in the kitchen and dining room. We like to use wood bowls to serve salad, pasta, fresh salsa, popcorn, and snacks. For utility bowls, a typical single serving bowl has a diameter of about 7 inches, a 12-inch bowl will hold enough to serve 2-4 people, a 15-inch bowl will hold enough to serve 4-8 people, and larger bowls will hold enough to serve even more people. We like our mixing bowls to be at least 3-inches deep.
A wood bowl can provide many years of service if properly cared for. Never put your bowl in a dishwasher, microwave, oven, or freezer. Prolonged exposure to water, high moisture food, and extreme temperatures can cause the natural bonds between wood fibers to fail. Wood bowls should be hand washed with warm soapy water and dried before storing. A wood bowl used for food service does not require a refinish, as it will develop a natural patina through use.