Reclaimed & Repurposed

With the business impacts caused by COVID 19, Earth Wise Consulting looked toward expanding its income sources. A natural solution occurred. Owner Branden Diehl has had a love for design and creativity since a child. Early projects included a water system of drinking straws in his sandbox. Later iterations were of drawings or paintings he did under the guidance of beloved Pearl Clark. As he grew up, Branden enjoyed helping and arguing with his father about how best to fix things around the house and how to build them.

Taking that passion and moving it forward, Branden started purchasing reclaimed lumber, used furniture, wooden pallets, and other commonly discarded items and started upcycling and repurposing them. In the evenings Branden is in the garage making rustic products and breathing new life into otherwise discarded materials--reducing landfill space while helping the environment. The effort aims to be as environmentally friendly as possible, with scraps being saved and converted into wood art.

Branden said, "Wood working aids me with the other tasks I do. It allows me to free form and start something with only a vision and not a plan. As I go through the process, I inherently need to adapt the vision and plan that develops to get the end-result. It's great training for critical thinking as well as thinking abstractly."

Custom requests have included repurposing an old desk, developing a story and base for a church heirloom, creating rustic wine racks, a custom countertop, and cornhole boards. Branden's shop has become a popular stop for those wanting to conscientiously remove wood "waste" from their properties. Recently, operations started to utilize downed trees to create live-edge shelves.

Fundamental to Branden's approach is to minimize waste, enhance the natural beauty of the product, and to find beneficial uses for sawdust and minimal scrap resources!