Showcasing the finest grain

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Bill Haywood is one of multiple artists to be featured at the 2017 ArtaFest, held on Aug. 19 at Charles City’s Central Park.

Haywood and many more will be showing and selling artwork from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Look for two more artist features this coming week in the Charles City Press. 

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Bill Haywood couldn’t finish his pieces without a bit of patience. After all, it takes more than two years before a Natural Flats product is finished.

“It’s very difficult to get paid for the time you put into them. So it’s good to be retired and have it as a hobby,” said Haywood, who was a professional forester for nearly 40 years.

The patience pays off — Haywood works with finicky material that shines under his expertise, but would have been otherwise wasted.

His business, Natural Flats, takes salvaged lumber — usually from the fork of a tree, which is difficult to work with — and turns pieces of all sizes into items as varied as a cribbage board or tea tray, to a coffee table or window seat.

“They’re all on repurposed stands. We find them used, clean them up or paint them, and mount one of our tops on it instead,” Haywood said. “All my wood source was wasted wood not suitable for lumber … Usually they’re chevron shaped. Almost all of them came out of the fork of a tree.”

Haywood started stockpiling the forked wood at home in Janesville years ago as he split firewood, and noticed the internal grain patterns drawing him in — intricate, detailed patterns he didn’t find in other parts of the tree.

He started letting the wood dry out for two years at home before he began working with the slabs.

“The wood, I call it interlocked, it comes around and it’s like having two fingers — that wood is growing together, and when you dry it out it cracks,” Haywood said. “That told me two things: dry it slowly to minimize that, and a commercial outlet really can’t do that.

“The only real suitable purpose once you have it stabilized … was tabletops. It’s limited its use, but for this purpose it is really quite fabulous. It comes out awful pretty. You have to accept a bit of a rustic nature to it.”

Haywood and his wife started setting the slabs on metal table legs, which he said gives them versatility.

“I think our attitude was that we shouldn’t notice (the legs), we should be looking at the top,” Haywood said.

Haywood also sells his table slabs independently, so a customer can order table legs they prefer and have him set the table.

Haywood took Natural Flats to his first arts show in Vermont last October — a big lesson that convinced him to stick with local shows.

“What has occurred is from every show we do, we end up with just as many custom orders afterwards. We don’t sell as many at the show,” Haywood said. “We’ll even have legs there that aren’t mounted … the whole idea is just to have (customers) see it.”

Occasionally, Haywood finds a slab in his stockpile that he calls “remarkably special” — enough to set them aside for the perfect stand, or shape, to inspire him.

“The coloring in them is so special. I call them the brown sun. I haven’t decided what to do with those yet,” Haywood said. “I consider Mother Nature the artist, and I’m the person who just revealed it.”

Haywood’s work allows him to continue the conservation message he lived as a forester.

“I always preached trees are the solution to a lot of our global warming,” Haywood said. “You or I will create enough carbon dioxide for five acres of trees in our life … If you make something beautiful out of (the wood), and use it for 100 years or more, then you’ve locked it up. It’s just so incredibly pretty, and it’s fun to do.”

“All this beauty comes from wastewood,” Haywood added. “It was salvaged, and I think my work allows people to feel the wood.”

To see more of Haywood’s work, visit www.naturalflats.com.