Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessie & Daniel Redden. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jessie & Daniel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

By the end of 2018, Daniel was tired of always being financially strapped; especially around the holidays. As much as he enjoyed working for his boss; pay-wise, he was topped-out and he didn’t want to go work for the mines or oil fields as many in our area do. However, after years of welding and then learning blacksmithing, he’d discovered not only that he enjoyed it, but he was really good. So, with my retail background and his artistic skill set we decided to try our hand at owning our own business. We created a Facebook page at the beginning of 2019 to showcase his work. But then life, a complicated pregnancy, and the birth of our second child took priority. It was late November 2019 by the time we opened our Etsy shop, but looking back, we decided to jump into selling his work at the optimum time. 2020 began with the infamous COVID pandemic and quickly escalated to world-wide lockdowns. Since people couldn’t leave their homes, they started looking online for not just affordable unique (and shippable) gifts but simple things such as hooks that they couldn’t go in and grab from the hardware store. Then, during the 2020 holidays, we began to notice a seemingly cultural shift away from mass produced cookie cutter gifts to more thoughtful one of a kind meaningful gifts. This intensified in 2021 during the Shipping Crisis, when, even though people could shop in person, it didn’t mean they would be able to purchase anything. Small businesses like ours were able to step up and provide the items that people were looking for. I think it was during this time that Daniel and I truly came to the realization that we are in a very unique time where we can make an ancient artform almost instantaneously accessible to potentially millions of people. I love that many artisan crafts thought to be forgotten are making a comeback; and we’re excited to be part of this movement.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We are Daniel and Jessie Redden, the co-owners of Sasquatch IronWorks. We are a small blacksmith shop located in rural western Colorado. Daniel does all the blacksmithing and nothing leaves our shop without his approval. I manage our online presence, interact with clients, and assist wherever needed out in the shop.

Daniel began his metal working journey almost a decade ago when he started working for a local farmer. What began with working cows and irrigating hay fields, soon turned into learning how to weld and fix old farm equipment with scrap parts. It was during this time that he discovered even old metal can be melded into something new and useful again. He began tinkering and was soon creating welded pieces to give to friends and family. Much to his surprise, we all loved his work and encouraged him to continue creating and learning. A few years ago, he decided to try his hand at blacksmithing. Once he started, he was hooked. He built his own forge, which, with a few modifications, he still occasionally uses. Then, with just a few tools and a gifted anvil, he began to quickly hone his skills. It wasn’t long before our family and friends were asking if they could purchase his finished pieces, so we decided to open our Etsy shop.

Everyone seems to associate blacksmiths with knives and swords, but there is much more to the craft. So, from the beginning, Daniel decided to set himself apart by focusing on creating practical, useful but yet artistic metal items. We started out offering simple horseshoe nail hooks and horseshoe hearts. Then we added small forged bowls, bottle openers, garden tools and various keychains to our repertoire. Our arrowhead keychains are now one of our best sellers as they’re unique and not something you can find in a chain store. We’ve taken on many custom requests for clients over the last few years, with two of our favorites being a set of custom gun hooks for a client’s antique gun collection and a custom heart door handle set for another client. We pride ourselves on offering only forged items which we would be proud to display in our own home.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We were fortunate to be able to start our business without needing to dump a lot of money in to get it off the ground. Daniel was gifted a small anvil, a few tools and an apron. He made his first coal forge using an old charcoal grill and a hair dryer. If he couldn’t make a tool he needed, he would make do with what we already had. Many of our early pieces used repurposed metal from his previous boss’s farm implement boneyard. We decided to use Etsy as our online platform to sell his creations as the initial listing fee was quite do-able and cost roughly the price of a couple fancy espresso drinks. I focused on learning how to market our items on Etsy so they wouldn’t sit around collecting dust and listing fees. Each item is priced to cover everything from the initial listing fee, the renewal fee, applicable shipping costs, packaging and possible advertising fees. From the very start, we chose to make staying out of debt a priority, and for quite a while we used what we had on hand. In the beginning, Daniel forged outside with his little homemade coal forge and he spent much of the 2020 holiday season forging outside late at night with the snow gently falling all around. I spent that holiday season packing orders at the kitchen table after the kids went to bed. After that holiday season, the business had finally saved enough to invest in a propane forge which helped us to significantly increase our productivity. By the beginning of 2021, working outdoors & packing orders at the kitchen table was no longer sustainable. So, we took a leap, got a business loan and expanded by building a shop and office to house our growing small business. Since then, we’ve purchased an additional propane forge, added a larger anvil, a power hammer and many smaller tools to streamline the forging process. With the exception of our shop, we’ve prioritized only making purchases when we have the funds on hand. I think, now more than ever, if a small hand-crafted business wants to succeed, they need to keep their initial debt to a minimum; which often means becoming resourceful and learning to come up with creative solutions.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

This one is easy. Solid customer service and attention to detail. I grew up having two entrepreneurs for parents and I learned at a very young age to treat your clients how you would wish to be treated. Daniel has always been uncompromising in his attention to detail and it is because of this that we are consistently able to ship out high quality products. We always want our customers to know that we value them and we truly appreciate the fact that they are choosing to spend their hard-earned money with us rather than with a faceless corporation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sasquatchironworks.etsy.com  www.sasquatchironworks.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sasquatchironworks
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sasquatchironworks
• Other: [email protected]