America's Greatest Pastime turned into a Wood Ring

There is a lot of different kind of woods out there. And we have such a huge selection to choose from in our shop. But some of the greatest rings that we've made have come from wood given to us by our customers. Even better, when the wood has a cool story to go with it.

Recently we had someone ask us if we could make a ring using a Louisville Slugger bat! Of course, our answer was an enthusiastic "YES"

But we didn't stop there, we also made cuff links and a really cool ring box to keep it all in. I think the cuff links are really a unique touch! Who would have thought, cuff links made from an old baseball bat!

Our favorite part, however, was using that big Louisville Slugger logo for the box. It just seemed to work out so perfectly that the bat made such a cool box to hold the ring and the cuff links.

We are proud to show this set off, check out the rest of the photo's!

Norm Sartorius and Recycled Wood

Last week we had a really fun customer come by our studio in Chicago. We were walking around the shop, and looking at all the different woods we have, and we started looking at this box of just little scrap pieces of wood. Each piece we pulled out of the box was more exciting than the last. We eventually found the right piece of wood for him, you'll see his ring below. But we wanted to share these cool pieces of wood with you!

We are so thrilled anytime anyone donates wood to our shop. It means so much to us to have so many unique and beautiful types of wood. One of the many people who has given us scrap pieces of wood is the great artist, Norm Sartories! He creates, "non-functional wooden spoons" and instead of wasting the pieces he has left over, he like to send them to us and others like us.

Gustav met with Sartorius at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Craft show a few years back and they hit it off. He sends us a few pieces every so often, and we are honored to use the pieces that Sartorius has provided us with. We hope that you see a few pieces you might like to use in your recycled Norm Sartorius wood ring. We are happy to share them with all of you out there!

If you want to read more about Sartorius, we would love for you to visit his website with the following link: http://www.normsartorius.com/index.html

Salvaged Rose Wood Ring

The rosewood that we incorporate into our wood rings was salvaged from a local Chicago man who had barrels of it in his garage. He had worked for a company that made xylophones out of rosewood. The thing about making xylophones is that you have to cut the wood to the right dimensions, then test it to see if it will make the proper note it was intended to make. If it didn't make the right note, the wood was scrapped. This particular gentleman couldn't stand to see such a beautiful wood tossed into the trash. So he took it home, and it sat very well preserved in his garage until Gustav bought it from him. Rosewood is now an endangered species. Other folks can't buy this rosewood anywhere. This rarity is what makes people want it even more, let alone the fact that it is a gorgeous, rich-hued wood. We still have these materials that have already been harvested from the earth, and are now disregarded as scraps, ready to be tossed in landfills. Instead of looking for new shiny materials, or trees to cut down fresh, we want to face forward. We can draw out the beauty of this wood that was saved from the landfills. Rosewood has been harvested to near extinction. All we have is what we've salvaged from other people's harvests, and we are able to take this unwanted material, and give it the status of precious, rare, sought after. This rosewood will one day find its way back to the earth; we hope to give it a noble life until then. Simply Wood Rings

We are pleased to present: Simply Wood Rings Behind the Scenes

We recently had a video made for us by one of our own Simply Wood Ring customers and filmmaker, Maren Wickwire. It means a lot to us to be able to show you who makes your rings, and let you know how much we love it! Hope you enjoy getting an inside look into the wood shop!

Simply Wood Rings in Garth Johnson new book

Simply Wood Rings is in Garth Johnsons new book due out this November. If you are interested in having your very own copy you can reserve yours here. Garth also maintains a blog called Extreme Craft which is a must see. Oh wait this guy also does this amazing pottery check it out at wondabread.com. Where he gets the time I don't know, but I would like to thank him for highlighting my work.

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse
Remake, Restyle, Recycle, Renew
Garth Johnson

Gustav Reyes in the Niche - Simply Wood Rings

This morning, I had the pleasure of seeing my work featured in the newest issue of NICHE Magazine. As part of the “Reclaim, Reuse, Recycle” article, it was such an honor to be featured alongside several artists and craftspeople whose work is governed by the same environmental concerns and practices. It was especially meaningful to see that NICHE, an established publication in the art and fine craft world, geared particularly towards small business retailers, devoted the entire summer issue to “green” work. I see this is an indication that “green” is moving finally from trend to lasting way of life.