From Pine Forests to Sustainable Wooden Rings: Learning to Honour Nature, One Craft at a Time
- Denzel Thys
- Dec 25, 2025
- 5 min read
If my dad’s classroom was the building site, my mum’s classroom was the forest.
She didn’t teach with lectures or rules. She taught by walking slowly, pointing at small things, and inviting us to notice what God had made. Those Sunday afternoons in the pine forests near Stellenbosch became some of my most treasured childhood memories — and the quiet roots of how Thys Wood Design approaches sustainability today.
Looking back, I can see how those slow Sundays planted the values behind our sustainable wooden rings today.
Sunday Afternoons in the Pine Forest
On Sunday afternoons, my mum would take us to the pine forests around Stellenbosch. We weren’t there to rush or to tick off a task. We were there to be present.
We collected pine cones — carefully, gently — and brought them home in bags. At home, we’d sit together and open them, harvesting the small pine seeds inside to eat. It was simple. It was slow. And I loved it.
That simple practice — taking only what was given — still shapes how I think about sustainable wooden rings.
Looking back, I realise those moments taught me something I didn’t have words for yet:
Nature is not just a backdrop to our lives. It is a gift.
We can use what nature gives us — but we must do it with gratitude and care.
The best things often come slowly, with attention and patience.
There was no waste in those afternoons. The cones gave us seeds. The walk gave us time together. The forest gave us peace.
Learning to Swim in the Dwarsrivier
My mum also taught us to swim in the Dwarsrivier in Pniël, a small river near Stellenbosch.
I still remember the cold water on my skin, the brown stones under my feet, and her calm voice nearby, encouraging us to trust the water and our own bodies.
She was never in a hurry. She let us take our time, splash around, feel the current, and learn at our own pace. Through her, I learned that nature is not something to conquer or control — it is something to respect, to listen to, and to move with.
In many ways, the river taught me the same lesson we carry into our sustainable wooden rings: respect what you can’t control, and work with care.
Those river days taught me:
Respect the power and beauty of creation.
Don’t take more than you need.
Enjoy what God has made, and care for it while you do.
These lessons didn’t feel like “environmental education” at the time. They just felt like love — a mother showing her children how to be at home in the world.
Sustainable Wooden Rings: What the Forest Taught Me About Responsibility
When I started working with wood years later, I didn’t sit down and write a sustainability mission statement. I just found myself naturally drawn to certain ways of working — ways that, I now see, were shaped by those Sunday afternoons with my mum.
I didn’t start with a sustainability statement. I started with questions — and those questions still guide our sustainable wooden rings.
I found myself asking:
Where does this wood come from?
How was it harvested?
Can I use every part of it, even the small offcuts?
What happens to this piece after it leaves my hands — will it last, or will it become waste in a few years?
These questions didn’t come from a textbook. They came from pine cones, river stones, and a mother who taught me to see creation as something sacred.
How This Shapes Thys Wood Design Today
At Thys Wood Design, sustainability is not a marketing angle. It is a way of seeing the world — and it flows directly from those early lessons.
For us, sustainable wooden rings aren’t a marketing angle — they’re a way of seeing the world with gratitude.
Here’s how my mum’s influence shows up in our work:
1) We choose materials carefully and responsibly.
We work with wood that has been sourced with care and respect. We ask questions about where it comes from and how it was treated. Just as my mum taught us to collect pine cones gently, we try to work with wood that honours the tree it came from.
2) We use natural oils and finishes.
Wherever possible, we select natural oils and finishes that are gentler on the environment and safer for the individuals wearing our pieces. We want what touches your skin to be as close to nature as possible.
3) We waste as little as possible.
Even small offcuts become earrings, pendants, inlays, or details in other pieces. My mum’s lesson — “use what you’ve been given with gratitude” — means we see potential, not scrap.
4) We plant trees through WannaTree.
For every ring we sell, a tree is planted through our partner WannaTree. It’s one small way of giving back more than we take — of saying thank you to the forests that give us so much.
5) We design for longevity, not trends.
We don’t chase fast fashion or disposable décor. We make pieces meant to last — rings that can be worn for decades, décor that becomes part of a home’s story. (And here in multicultural Germany, where so many of us are building “home” across languages and origins, that kind of lasting story matters.) We want your piece to hold meaning, not just a moment.
Sustainability as Gratitude
For me, sustainability is not first about guilt or rules. It’s about gratitude.
When I hold a piece of wood in my hands, I see:
the tree it came from,
the soil that fed it,
the rain and sun that helped it grow,
and the God who made all of that possible.
How could I treat that carelessly?
My mum didn’t use the word “sustainability” when we walked through the forest. But she taught me something deeper: to see creation as a gift we are responsible for, not a resource we are entitled to.
That’s the heart of how we work at Thys Wood Design.
Inviting You Into This Story
When you wear a Thys Wood Design ring, you are not just wearing a piece of jewellery.
You are wearing:
a Sunday afternoon in a pine forest,
a mother’s gentle voice by a river,
a belief that creation is sacred and worth caring for,
and a commitment to waste as little as possible and give back more than we take.
You are also invited into that same way of seeing the world.
What if the things we own, wear, and use were chosen with a bit more care?
What if we slowed down enough to notice the grain, the story, the hands that made it?
What if we honoured the materials we’ve been given, instead of treating them as disposable?
When you choose sustainable wooden rings, you’re choosing something slower: care over convenience, story over trend.
These are the questions my mum planted in me, long before I knew they would shape a business. And now, through Thys Wood Design, I get to pass them on to you.
A Quiet Thank You
Thank you, Mammie, for teaching me to walk slowly through the forest.
Thank you for showing me that nature is not just beautiful — it is a gift we are responsible for caring for. And thank you for planting seeds in me that are still growing today.
When you choose a Bentwood ring, join a workshop, or simply pause to notice the grain in a piece of wood, you are honouring that same spirit.
Thank you for walking this path with us.
— Denzel
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