Bearfare launches new Bear-inspired serving trays with focus on sustainability

11th May 2022 BWM Staff

This month marks the official launch of Bearfare, which features new bear head serving tray products and a commitment to sustainability.

Bearfare, a small-batch woodworking studio located in Denver, Colorado, offers a variety of bear-inspired home goods aimed at making it a joy to prepare meals and serve guests. Since launching last fall, the young company has launched charcuterie and cheese boards available in over a dozen styles along with other kitchen-related accessories and gear.

Bearfare maintains a practice of solely procuring materials and supplies stateside with a focus on high-quality, ethically-sourced lumber. While their initial product lines were deliberately planned for months, this latest release developed organically through the company’s core sustainability beliefs.

“Fundamentally, wood is our medium. I can’t stomach throwing away any materials left over from our fabrication process. For months the piles of waste just kept growing. We had to come up with a creative way to make use of it,’ said Ray Villares, Bearfare owner. “Then the solution presented itself.”

The creation of Bearfare’s bear head cheese boards produced an outer shell that, when layered on top of another piece of wood, could be repurposed to make a serving tray. After that, the company was able to quickly race into design and development to bring the product to market. The result – a new serving tray product available in 16 styles.

“These serving trays are my favorite product so far. Like all our products, they are both beautiful and well-crafted but additionally can be used in so many ways. The early success we are seeing is encouraging us to explore what else we could make,’ commented Ray.

New developments are instore this year for Bearfare. The company has announced it will launch an extra-large version of its serving trays along with a myriad of other products aimed at making use of their ‘waste’.

We had a quick chat with Ray Villares to ask a few more questions about the new beary product!

BWM: We love the inspiration for your products! Can you tell us how long it takes to make the bear board?

Ray Villares: We have it pretty efficient now, so it takes about an hour to mill and ‘glue-up’ the wood blank. It takes an additional hour to carve, route, and sand the finished piece.

BWM: When preparing a board, what are your favorite cheese and wine combo?

RV: I have a sweet tooth, so I love sweeter wines, like Riesling. I also like salty cheeses like gorgonzola, aged gouda, or parmesan. I do love me some brie with fig jam too. Honestly, there isn’t a cheese I don’t like! (laughs)

BWM: The colors are amazing! What woods are you using to create the boards? Anything unusual?

RV: Selecting the wood species proved to be a fairly involved effort. We wanted to have options that added color, but many of those species lose their color with exposure to sunlight over time. The bloodwood we use, for example, will never change color.

The second consideration was the ‘look’. We didn’t want to look like products you can find inexpensively on Etsy (maple, walnut, cherry). We wanted species that looked interesting by themselves and paired well together. We use Wenge as the main wood because it is rarely used and looks like fur which lends itself to our bear-inspired theme.

And lastly, we had to make sure the costs for the lumber weren’t going to blow our budget and that we could readily source the materials so we wouldn’t risk running out.