Southwest Virginia is known for its wood industry. But in many places, sawmills have closed. Local logs are now shipped internationally to be processed. And that means places like Floyd County are looking for innovative ways to market their natural resources and their creative flair.
In Part 2 of this series, Floyd Grown, Robbie Harris takes us into the woods where a Wizard is growing wedding rings in trees.
Dawn Shiner and Frank Hyldahl at Greenwood Wizard literally grow the rings they design and sell. Hyldahl has come up with a method that involves tying half knots into living young green twigs on his trees. Then he wraps them around a ring sized form and lets the tree do some of the work.
“I guess the idea came from just my desire to do something with trees where I was growing them in to a specific shape and the grain of the tree was grown into that actual shape, so it had strength in the way it grew and there as a way to-- in a sense manufacture a thing by growing it rather than manufacturing it,” Hyldahl says.
As the twigs grow on the form, the knotted ends ultimately graft themselves into a seamless, round ring for your finger.
“Various techniques I have to use I sometimes put some Frankincense with alcohols on there which dries quickly and makes it sticky so it can stay put, because without that, they’ll sometimes untie themselves and it’s hard to get them tight without that and if you tighten them too tight it’s easy to break them so by doing it loosely I get a really good a graft," says Hyldahl.
Sometimes he embeds a pearl or gem stone, says Dawn Shiner, “and literally the tree has held them in by curling over them on the edges and we get these ‘eye ‘like appearances."
Some trees grow faster than others, so some rings take longer, Hyldahl says. “I didn’t have hardly any investment money at all, just investment in time.”
On their wooded property, Frank tends what he estimates is, about a thousand living wooden rings at different stages. And he says only about half of them ever make it to the display case. They have to have the right qualities before he carves and shapes and sizes one for sale.
Dawn handles the communications and marketing, but as one of the winners selected by the Floyd Grown initiative for a thousand dollars worth of technical assistance, they were able to enhance their website.
Instead of local wood, heading overseas, Greenwood Wizard makes jewelry, right here in Floyd that has a sense of place. “To me, it means a chance to cultivate a deeper relationship with all the living things around me," Hyldahl says.
The rings are for any occasion, but the symbolism of the twigs growing together into a circle is a big draw for engagement and wedding ring.
Dawn Shiner says, “I think the most beautiful part about this whole process has just been watching how the trees and Frank have been collaborating. So much in being present so he can comprehend what he’s supposed to comprehend.”
Economic and Community Development Director Lydeana Martin says, Greenwood Wizard is exactly the kind of niche businesses the“Floyd Grown” initiative was looking to help support. She says the working group took a page from a model being used in Littleton Colorado, called “economic gardening.”
“And that seemed to fit well with the tone of a Floyd, Virginia," Martin says. "The idea is to look at what’s growing around you and how you can support that.”
