GOOD FORESTRY
Our story started with guitars, but it’s rooted in something deeper — respect for the wood itself. We’ve seen firsthand how rare and valuable high-quality hardwoods are becoming, and we believe that crafting bowls from what can’t be used for instruments requires a full circle vision. Caring for the forests we have, and helping grow the ones we’ll need down the road, is part of the long game. Because if we’re working with wood, we should be working for the future forest, too.
INVESTING in the FOREST
SIGLO TONEWOODS
Siglo was established in 2015 to conserve, restore and grow one of Hawai’i’s great assets – the koa tree.
Koa has become increasingly scarce in Hawaii, and at the Siglo project, we’re working to protect and restore this valuable resource. By combining careful forest recovery with research-backed seed cultivation and planting, we can regenerate healthy koa forests. We want to ensure koa has a future, not just for the instrument wood we mill in the Skagit Valley at Pacific Rim Tonewoods, but for our Seventh String Bowls as well. Our seed orchard and every tree we plant support both craft and conservation — a small step towards thriving, resilient forests.
UTOPIA PROJECT
The story of our maple bowls begins long before the lathe – it starts with science.
At Utopia, our work with figured big leaf maple began in 2014 with a question rooted in sustainability: can we intentionally grow more high value wood like figured maple? Known for its distinctive grain, and long treasured by craftspeople working in wood, figured or fiddleback maple is naturally rare. By propagating cuttings at our greenhouse near Birdsview WA, we’re helping ensure this remarkable wood can be cultivated, not just extracted. It’s a long-term investment in healthier forests and more responsible sourcing — and it allows us to craft bowls that are as enduring in purpose as they are in beauty.
Full Circle Forestry
Good forestry means thinking beyond the wood we need now. It’s about caring for the life cycle of the forest, and actively working in consideration of the land, our communities, and the resource. That means growing healthy seedlings, planting trees, hiring locally, buying wood from value-aligned sources, and using the wood we have wisely. When we do that, we’re not just making useful things — we’re helping make sure there will be forests, and the materials we need, long into the future.
