Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion. – HEGEL
WOODSWAN supports eco-friendly sustainable living by creating modern, minimalistic, organic furnishings and architectural elements derived from rescued fallen trees, tree stumps, and reclaimed wood. Whether downed by fire, flood, lightening or just the natural course of age, each finished piece has a story.
Designed, built and sourced in New Mexico, each piece is handmade with great attention and care. All our rescued wood has been kiln-dried, each cut is level and everything applied to the wood releases zero to low VOC, thus stable in any interior. Our lean method of production insures surface treatments, realized through multiple stages, are smooth but tactile. Each bespoke piece is handcrafted to our standard of quality. Special attention is given to naturally occurring flaws or cracks making each and every creation genuinely unique.
At WOODSWAN we believe everything from the natural world should be celebrated. Every tree naturally displays beauty and character born from adversity thus we celebrate all their cracks and wrinkles. We humbly offer this metaphor to embrace and honor these old sentrys.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re born in a duck yard, so long as you are hatched from a swan’s egg!”
– Hans Christian Andersen
We rescue and carefully recover dead and downed tree sections all over New Mexico. We often receive calls from people who have seen trees being chipped, ground up, or piled for burning, a common solution to the debris after a fire event or flood in the southwest. We attempt to "rescue" these trees before this occurs.
All recovered tree sections are carefully transported to our staging area in Glencoe, New Mexico. We recover most of the trees locally and from other areas of New Mexico.
The natural air-drying of any species of wood can be a long process, so oftentimes wood is kiln-dried to speed the process along. Kiln-drying is a process of placing any wood into a kiln where heated air is circulated. The temperature and RH of the kiln is controlled for the purpose of reaching the wood’s Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC). Kiln-drying minimizes cracking and assists in the mitigation of fungus, mold and insects.
At this stage these raw shapes are beginning to be transformed. Most manufactured goods have a standard customization at their factory with certain measurements and details. Bespoke is made from scratch to your specifications. In our case bespoke is also unique due to the organic material used. Each piece is inherently unique, no two are identical.
Even tree sections within the same species vary in fibre density, texture and grain pattern. Our team recognizes these unique features and works to highlight. We celebrate all fissures, occlusions, spalting and cracks. We simply celebrate nature in all its forms.
Every piece and surface is treated with impeccable care, quality and craftsmanship. There is a green approach to products utlized--all 0% to low VOC.
Here is a version of our SWAN line table. It shows the raw 'duckling' stage, the sanding and finishing stages and finally the inner 'swan' realized.
what our clients say
The table is beautiful, and the packing job that was done for shipment should get some award. FABULOUS folks to work with from start to finish!
ANDREW L. in PA 3/17/2017
Great people to deal with. Know what they doing and love doing it. I could have stayed there for hours talking to them about creating wood projects.
F. Taverna July 2021
Received my tree stump stool the other day and couldn't be more pleased. From ordering through delivery, communications were great. They even emailed me a picture of my piece when they shipped. And, oh my, the packaging: it was so carefully wrapped, padded, boxed and coddled, that one could easily forget this was once a wild tree felled with a chainsaw. They were magically able to bring out the beauty and character in the wood; sanded and finished satin smooth. It's one of a kind. Love!
Stephen K. in Chicago - 1/28/2017
The tables are even more beautiful than the photo indicates!!! The wood tones are varied and softly colored. The craftsmanship is impeccable. The sellers took great care with the packaging and shipping. This one deserves 6 stars! Thank you SO much.
Marris A. in NYC 3/1/2017
Incredible service! Impressive artistry mixed with a really good sense of customer service.
J. Dietz June 2020
First class experience dealing with Sherry and the Woodswan team. Great communication, creativity, quality and also educational! Highly recommend!
PTWelch October 2021
If walls could talk, my kitchen would thank you! Friends and family sharing in the hospitality and camaraderie of my home join me in celebrating the custom walnut floating shelves that you so beautifully crafted for this all important space! The uniqueness of my solar adobe home begged for an artistic creation, and my only sadness is that I can't just dangle them from the ceiling as three dimensional art! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart! I love them from my morning coffee to my nightly tea!
Susan T. in Ruidoso, NM 5/24/2017
glen & sherry barrow, ownerS & designerS and their team at WOODSWAN