Interview with Kayla from Rustic Wood Supply
Company Name: Rustic Wood Supply
Name and Role: Kayla & Seth Stallard- Owners
Location: Murphy, North Carolina
www.rusticwoodsupply.net and @rusticwoodsupply
When and how did you start Rustic Wood Supply?
We started Rustic Wood Supply in 2012. We were planning our wedding and I was trying to get ideas for decorations that we both liked. Being from the mountains, we both like the "rustic, country" look. I found some wood slices on Pinterest and began to show them to my husband. He said, "I am not buying those when I can make them." After researching some on Etsy, we realized that there was not many people selling them so he decided to give it a go. His idea was to just make $50 or so here and there just for a little gas money to get back and forth from college. Soon after, I was quitting my job at a hospital to help him. Little did we know just how much God would bless us!
How many people are on the team at Rustic Wood Supply?
It is just me and my husband. He gets all the trees and cuts all of the wood. I do all of the computer work, packing, shipping, and grinding/sanding all the wood.
How and where is the wood sourced?
All of our wood is locally sourced. We work directly with a couple of loggers and sawmills. Sourwood is a small tree that has no benefit for the logging industry. So we go ahead of their crew and get what trees they are just going to run over. We try to do this so we can make use of something that will simply be left to just rot. We live in an area with vast amounts of mature standing timber. In order to directly help wildlife and keep the mountains healthy, certain portions are strategically logged to promote new growth and vegetation to help suply an abundance of wildlife and mountain species. Logging is often looked down upon, but it is actually very beneficial to give back to earth. We also do storm work. We do not get many strong storms because of the mountains around us, but when we do, we use downed trees from these events.
What kinds of wood varieties do you offer?
Our main two wood species are sourwood and poplar. We do work with pine and can access other woods if preferred. However, most of our customers prefer the sourwood as it so easy and good to work with.
Can you show us some of your products?
How do you prep the wood? Is it dried? Is it sanded?
Everything that we cut is cut green and then air dried. We do not have a kiln. This is a process used by large companies to mass dry more wood at a faster rate. Everything we do is cut to order and air dried. It might be a little slower than a kiln, but still very accurate. Acceptable percentage in kiln dry wood is 8-10% and air dry percentage is 1-6%. We do not have a very large inventory as we like to stay personal with our customers and take on a large amount of custom orders. All of our wood is sanded smooth. The small slices we offer are cut smooth, and the larger live edge pieces are sanded down before sending out.
What are your recommendations for wood storage?
We recommend just keeping the wood stacked and out of the direct sunlight. Also, extremely hot areas can cause some of the wood to crack so stored in a cool, dry area is preferred.
When did you discover that wood burning artists loved your wood?
Not long ago, we started trying to expand our social media. We quickly realized that there was a large wood burning community on instagram. It was about 7 months ago when most of our activity on instagram showed us that wood burners really loved our products. We have had a lot of great feedback from the wood burning artists on our sourwood slices. A lot of people had never heard of sourwood, but customers are saying that it burns beautifully.
What percentage of wood would you say goes to wood burning artists?
I would say about 30%.
What other things do you see your wood slices being used for?
A lot of our slices are used for weddings. They use the round live edge pieces for centerpieces, cake stands, or food decor. In the fall, we sell thousands of our small coaster size slices for companies to turn into ornaments. We have had several customers create a large wood slice wall. They have all turned out beautiful! A lot of our slices are used by engraving companies. The slabs have been used for home decor signs, serving trays, and even interior design.
Are you shipping now and where do you ship?
We are shipping now. We are just limiting how many days that we do ship. We have cut down to only shipping about 1 day a week. We do offer shipping everywhere in the world. International shipping can be expensive, but if the customer is willing to pay for it, we are happy to do so! The only country we have had problems shipping to is Australia. They do not seem to let the wood through customs and it ends up getting sent back to us.
Any new products in the works?
We are working on offer some free standing slices. We already make them for customers, but they are just not on our website yet. We are also going to launch new sourwood mini slabs. They will be live edge on both sides ranging between 3 and 5" wide and around 1 ft long.
What goals do you have for Rustic Wood Supply?
To us, being personal with our customers is huge and means a lot to us. As just a husband and wife team, we like to know our customers and engage in the community. We like to personally see what happens with the wood we cut and really enjoy seeing what people turn it in to. We pride ourselves in having the best quality small wood slices as well as the most affordable prices and we always want that for our customers. We also would just like to get our products out there and make people aware of the quality of our wood even though it is not as common as others. Our goals are to just stay personal with our customers and put our best work in for them to ensure the best quality in our products. We are at a point where we have grown some and people do know about our company, but at the same time, we enjoy being the small business that we have become and just hope that we can simply support our little family of three!
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