Our family has been making things forever. My father spent his life in education, has authored books, built stained glass windows and into his 80's hand carves wooden wagons. My mom is an gifted quilter and I have been sandblasting glass, building furniture and cabinets for years.
I have always been interested in taking an idea, figuring out how get it going, and of course screwing it up enough times to get it right.
I traveled to a trade show in 2018 and saw my first laser engraver. After some thinking and deliberation I made the plunge and bought a used one. In the learning process I went back to my roots and decided to try and put some pictures on Yeti cups. Living in Idaho where the supreme game animal in the Rocky Mountain Elk I figured that was a good place to start. Here is the first in our Wildlife Series and I am still extremely proud of the results.
You probably have a friend that wears a hat about everywhere you have ever seen him. Yep, I am that guy. If i'm not in bed asleep I probably have a hat on.
After getting the laser engraver going and engraving I don't know how many tumblers I started seeing these Leather Patch Hats around. I figured I love hats, and had the majority of what I needed to make them. Like most things I have ever tried It was harder than I thought, but I kept going until I had messed it up enough times to where I was finally happy with the product.
We started as a Art Glass company. 25 years ago I was sandblasting pictures and art on glass with detail not matched at that time. This is a piece that was donated to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in 2018. The glass is 1/2 inch thick Starfire Glass, the wood is Bubinga and Wenge. The base hides a full RF controlled LED system with color changing and on off control.
I had a little art glass business in Maui for 6-7 years. It started with a couple of tools, some glass and a piece of plywood for a work bench on a garbage can outside our little place in Maui. I have heard if you're not embarrassed by the first piece you put out you waited too long. Our first prototype is the one on top, the final version is on the bottom. Maui was a pretty good place to sell Humpback Whale sun catchers and I made a lot of them.