Company Name: Walnut Hollow

Name and Role: Hannah Bartelt, Marketing and Social Media Specialist

Location: Dodgeville, Wisconsin

Find us on: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Website  and Blog

Can you tell us a brief history of Walnut Hollow? How/when did it start? 

The start of Walnut Hollow is one of my favorite stories to tell - and the details are the best part. My grandpa, Dave Ladd, has always been passionate about nature and woodland conservation. He planted trees all around the family land to track their growth, environment, and health from seedling to mature tree. Once the trees were mature, he would harvest them and begin the process again. He gave his wife, Nancy, my grandma, some of the slices from a mature tree that he had harvested. She has always been a passionate crafter and she used the wood slices as a base for a decoupage project - the rest is history.

My grandpa began to market the idea of Walnut Country Rounds® throughout the community and they were so well received he started to attend trade shows around the country. He did not have the funds to have a booth at the shows, so he would track down the buyers and invite them to come back to his hotel for a meeting. He would serve cheese and crackers...because, well, Wisconsin! He came home from his first trade show with enough orders to jump right into planning, production, and distribution. Walnut Hollow was officially founded in 1972. You can watch this video to see some old photos and get the concise rundown of who we are as a company!

How many family members currently work at Walnut Hollow and how many have worked there over the years? 

There are currently 5 family members working here full-time, including myself. Since my grandpa’s retirement several years ago, my mom is now the President + CEO. My uncle is the CFO and his wife is our Human Resources and Accounting Specialist. My second cousin is the Plant Manager. Every person in my immediate and extended family has worked here at some point! My mom, uncle, second cousin, and many other employees have been here from the beginning - 35+ years.

Walnut Hollow is a company that prides itself on sustainability as well as being made in the USA. Can you tell me a bit about your zero waste processing system?  

Sustainability and conservation is literally how Walnut Hollow started, and it has been a priority ever since then. We implement sustainable practices throughout our entire company, but we do have some major initiatives we pride ourselves on: 

• In 2015, David Ladd was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame for contributing to conservation programs, projects, public understanding, and conservation ethics for Wisconsin and the nation. 

• The Ladd family has planted more than 300,000 trees and shrubs on personal property in the surrounding area.

• When possible, raw material is harvested from Midwesst plantation and managed woodlands for the manufacture of wood surfaces.

• Walnut Hollow has a unique sawdust recovery system whereby sawdust and chips from the manufacturing process are vacuumed at each work station to a central silo storage system. As a result, the manufacturing operation is not detrimental to the health of employees or the environment.

• Wood waste and sawdust are recycled and sold as livestock bedding. No wood waste ends up in landfills.

Can you give us a rundown of some WH products? What kinds of wood and tools do you offer? 

We offer 2 main product lines: wood surfaces and wood burning tools. We also sell clock making supplies, crafting tools, and wood carving supplies.  I’ll keep this brief, but you can learn more about our offerings on our website! 

Our wood surfaces are probably what we are most well-known for. Our signature product lines, Basswood Country Rounds and Planks are the same product we brought to market over 40 years ago; however, they are now made of basswood (vs. walnut). Basswood is ideal for wood burning which is how we started our wood burning tools line. My uncle Scott was an extremely talented and creative teenager and started working on design concepts with my grandpa. He started attending trade shows when he was 16 years old and hosted demonstrations at the Walnut Hollow booth. All of the traditional tools and points that we sell today are almost exact replicas of the products that Scott designed years ago - with just a few innovations to match current technology. 

For more information about our wood surfaces - check out this video!

How are your wood surfaces prepared?

All of the wood we use is the highest possible quality and furniture grade lumber. Our wood material arrives to our production plant either in full log form or large planed surfaces. The logs are cut, kiln dried, sanded, and packaged. The planed pieces go through the same drying process, but are usually glued together to create plaques, then sanded and packaged. Every single wood piece is naturally untreated and kiln dried to keep bark intact, lower the risk of cracking, and to remove all moisture.

What is the best storage solution to keep our wood in tip-top shape? 

I always recommend keeping your wood surfaces in a place that will not be prone to collecting moisture and will not be direct sunlight. A closet or closed storage cabinet would be ideal. This will ensure the wood is not exposed to moisture or sunlight, which can cause discolouration.

How do you recommend that pyrographers clean WH wood burning tools? Does it depend on the type of burner? 

It seems like everyone kind of has their own preference when talking about this topic. I usually suggest using a fine grit sandpaper to gently rub off any residue from the points. This is the easiest way, in my opinion! I know a lot of people use a damp sponge to clean their points. This is effective and easy as well. When using the sandpaper method, just be sure to swipe very lightly across the sandpaper. You can use this technique with all of our points, but I would be extra gentle with the delicate wire tip points.

You mentioned there are more nib options coming for the Creative Woodburner! How many, and when can we hope to see them? Any chance we can twist your arm a bit more into telling us more about the shapes/types of nibs?

So excited about this question!! We will be releasing 4 new points that will be compatible with the wire point Creative Woodburner! You will be able to find them at Hobby Lobby and Michaels! I believe they will be available at Hobby Lobby first, but both stores will have them set by mid-September! You’ll have to wait until then for the official announcement and reveal, but think more shading points, a stamping point, and more precision! Stay tuned - we will announce on social when they are available!

Wood Burn Corner has been so lucky to get to do a bunch of different collaborations with Walnut Hollow. The Creative Woodburner packaging, many many challenges, sponsorship at the Burn Club Retreat, scholarships, WH traveling wood piece, and so many other things I am probably forgetting. What do you think has been some of the best things we have worked on together, and why? 

I have loved every project and campaign we have worked on but I think my favourite was the WH Traveling Wood piece. It was so fun seeing that piece evolve and travel around the country. I was the last recipient of the piece and I have it proudly displayed at my desk!

What are some of the most unique or interesting ways you have seen WH products used?

Seeing our products in the wild is one of my favorite things - it never gets old! We have been featured in a lot of craft and DIY magazines over the years which is always fun to see. Martha Stewart Living featured Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s wedding a few years ago and they used some of our plaques as table decorations! We see our barked products a lot on Shark Tank - many of the entrepreneurs use them in their displays. I think the most recent sighting was on Netflix’s Tiger King series. Did you see it?? So random!! I also love seeing new things on Instagram from our community and different techniques that are used during our Burnt Month campaigns!

What can wood burning artists do to increase their chances at getting featured on @walnuthollow? 

We cannot feature you if we don’t see your posts! So make sure your profile is public and use #walnuthollow. You can also tag us in the actual photo (not the comments - those get lost in our notifications!). I have not been posting a lot lately, but I do go through and checkout the posts we are tagged in - love seeing how everyone uses our products!

Do you forsee opening Walnut Hollow for tours in the future? 

We do not have plans to start doing tours. It is really difficult to make this possible due to overall production safety. Keeping our employees safe is very important and bringing in extra traffic to an already busy building would be really tough. We will keep this in mind though, and maybe will be able to share more about production virtually instead!

Will there be another WH Traveling Wood Piece? 

I would love to do another WH Traveling Piece! Let’s do it!

What goals do you have for the future of Walnut Hollow?

Right now we are focused on continuing to provide the highest quality products to our customers. Innovation is also very important to our future. We are always exploring new wood surface developments and new tool concepts. I don’t think I can share any concrete goals without spoiling anything :) 

Watch Hannah’s recorded live interview: