For the past decade, Alabama Sawyer has been telling a distinctly Alabama story through reclaimed wood.

Founded in 2016 by Leigh and Cliff Spencer after returning to Birmingham from Los Angeles, Alabama Sawyer began with a simple but meaningful idea: take what already exists in our communities and give it a second life. Today, that vision has grown into a nationally recognized design practice, with furniture and custom pieces made from reclaimed urban timber found throughout Alabama and the Southeast.

Trees that might otherwise be discarded because of storms, age, development or declining health are salvaged, milled and transformed into heirloom-quality furniture and design pieces. In the last decade, Alabama Sawyer says it has “saved more than 60,000 board feet of wood and diverted more than 500 trees from landfills. Ninety percent of its materials are sourced within 50 miles of Birmingham.”

Beginning next week, Alabama Sawyer is celebrating ten years with Camp Sawyer, a 14-day gallery exhibition and a series of gatherings bringing together friends, family, designers, makers and supporters of the urban timber movement. It is an opportunity to look back at a decade of craftsmanship and forward to what the next ten and twenty years might hold.

For us at SoulGrown, the connection feels especially personal.

Every year, we are honored to work with the Alabama Sawyer team to create the awards for Soul of the South. There is something incredibly meaningful about recognizing people who are making an impact across our region with awards that are themselves made from the landscape we all call home.

We have always admired Alabama Sawyer’s ability to see possibility in something most people might overlook—a fallen tree, a piece of urban timber, a material that could easily be considered waste—and transform it into something beautiful, useful and lasting. It feels like a fitting metaphor for Alabama itself: taking what we have, honoring where it came from and creating something worth passing on.

Ten years later, that philosophy is on display at Lakeview Marina from September 14 – 28.

Festivities during the 14 day “camp” include social events, educational events like Leigh’s Interior Designer Presentation, a storytelling workshop, arts & crafts for the whole family, and more. To RSVP and to view the full schedule, visit Alabama Sawyer’s website.

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