Useful Objects studio is the Enumclaw-based workshop of Bella McLaws. I make contemporary wooden furniture and functional household objects that are rooted in vernacular forms and influenced by traditional methods.

I use both hand tools and machines. Every piece is finished by hand, which imbues each individual object with character / helps it age gracefully.

Sustainability / Reciprocity

Sustainability is key to my work and thinking. I only use domestic woods (domestic to the U.S.A.), and try, wherever possible, to use woods local to the Pacific Northwest. Non-toxic finishes and glues are prioritized. My relationship with the land I inhabit, as well as the Eastern U.S. from where I get much of my wood, is something that I think deeply and frequently about. I welcome constructive suggestions for how to better embody reciprocity in my woodworking practice.

I encourage you not to buy things you do not need. However, when you do find yourself in need of a furniture item or home goods, solid wood items, designed well and built with intention, are the way to go. The creation of wood items results in offcuts, shavings, and sawdust. In my workshop, these “waste” products are either reused for smaller projects, used to heat my home, or return to the earth as garden mulch. Finally, while solid wood items are designed to last for many generations, you could chop up / deconstruct any object that I make in my workshop and compost it. It would eventually be eaten by invertebrates, fungus, and bacteria, and break down into dirt (just like a tree that falls in a healthy forest)——and that is something I am proud of.

Thank you for supporting my small business and my family.

Land acknowledgement

I acknowledge that the land I live and work on is the ancestral territory of Coast Salish peoples, specifically, the Muckleshoot and Puyallup tribes. I acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of this region. Indigenous peoples have lived on and stewarded these lands since time immemorial, and continue to do so today. I commit to learning from their example and upholding their rights as the original guardians of these beautiful and rich places.