Artisan Maker Story: Wild Timbers

On a quiet farm in the rolling countryside of Northeast Missouri, craft begins with the land itself.

In the summer of 2017, Dwaine and Kathy Totten founded Wild Timber Bowls, inspired by the abundant native hardwoods surrounding their family farm. Years earlier, their timber had been carefully and conservatively harvested, leaving behind beautiful logs of oak, walnut, hickory, catalpa, birch, and locust that would otherwise have slowly returned to the forest floor.

Rather than letting those pieces fade into decay, Dwaine saw possibility.

Working with simple tools and a patient hand, he carved his first bowl from the reclaimed wood of their own land. What began as a quiet experiment quickly became a passion. Each piece revealed the character of the tree it came from, the grain, the weight and the warmth of the wood shaped by hand.

Kathy soon filled their home with the bowls he created, not only because they were beautiful, but because they carried the story of the farm itself. Each bowl was made from a piece of land that had sustained their family and could now be passed forward to the next generation.

Today, Wild Timber Bowls has grown beyond those first carvings. Dwaine now crafts river tables, benches, fountains, and decorative pieces, always guided by the same simple philosophy: use what the land provides and shape it into something meaningful.

Their bowls have traveled far from the Missouri countryside, given as wedding gifts, birthday presents, retirement keepsakes, and tokens of love. Some have been donated to community charities, church gatherings, and school events. One even made its way across the ocean as a hostess gift in Morocco.

Yet every piece begins the same way, with a tree, a story, and the steady work of human hands.

When you bring a Wild Timber bowl into your home, you are holding a small piece of that land and the quiet craft that shaped it.

Write sourcing and impact here.