We were lucky to catch up with Nicole & Jason Oswalt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole & Jason, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

It all started as Jason’s idea to be honest. He wanted to get into 3D printing mainly as a hobby. He basically kept asking Nicole (me) about getting a 3D resin printer so that they could print their own miniatures for table top rpg games like Dungeons and Dragons. After about a year we decided to take the leap and get a printer but now other people besides ourselves also wanted minis. So we would print them for people for a minimum price just to cover print material costs as resin can be expensive. Then a couple people said about us actually selling them at various events so we decided to give it a try. The first event that we sold some of our items at was at Sci-fi Valley Con in Altoona Pa. We bounced off of another friend’s table to test the waters and see how they would do. And we didn’t do bad.

At this point we started tossing around ideas as to what to call our little company. This is where we came up with The Geek Foundry. Both my husband and I consider ourselves “geeks” so to speak. We both enjoy things like video games, Dungeons and Dragons, comic books, sci-fi and fantasy themed books and movies, etc. … So we were like “Hey! We’re Geeks and we’re making things like they do in foundries for other Geeks!” Hence The Geek Foundry.

We were honestly scared at first because of the time and money being invested in what we do. But on the other hand it’s like an adventure for us. So we were excited about the unknown as well as excited about the prospects of being creative. We are both very creative in our own ways. Jason is very good with numbers and is always on point with his ideas. He’s the guy when something breaks he fixes it and sometimes in 3D printing you have to get creative while doing that. Nicole is the one who does our custom modeling for some of our prints. A lot of the keychains, earrings, coasters and figures are her designs come to life.

One of the most exciting things is when we go to vendor a show and bring one of our display printers. We’re able to talk to people about 3D printing and educate them on how it works and the difference between printer types and materials. The second most exciting thing is watching both adults and kids faces light up when they get to see, touch and play with the items on our tables. It brings us a lot of joy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Like stated prior Jason and I got into the 3D printed business based out of our own interests and hobbies. We originally started with one tiny resin printer. It has now expanded into a small fleet of 10 printers. (3 resin printers and 7 FDM printers) FDM stands for Fused deposition modeling and uses varying types of filament (Plastics to Carbon Fiber) to create a 3D printed model.

As far as discipline goes, both Jason and I have differing disciplines. His is with his machining background. Jason is a machinist by trade and a tube laser operator. He is so amazing with his mechanical know how and being good with numbers. Me (Nicole) on the other hand am the creator and artist of many of our models and designs. I am a graphic designer by trade with a minor background in 3D design.

We offer our “toys” and fidgets for sale but what a lot of people do not realize and we want to them to know is that we also offer custom services. Like do you need a custom model or part to fix something? We can try to help with that. We are starting to offer things like fundraisers as well. For example if your high school is The Gators we want to be able to help with your spirit sales with things like custom earrings, keychains even the famous articulated dragons done in your school colors. These are the things we get really excited about. We have done custom drink coasters for a large local company here in Johnstown Pa.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We have many from when we first started. We did a lot of small town craft shows and if you have ever been to one in a church basement you know that they tend to draw a more “conservative” crowd. I am talking about church going older folks who are used to seeing homemade pot holders and the like just to paint you a picture.

So here we come in with only having prints from our tiny resin printer that started it all. We have all these Dungeons and Dragons figurines and monsters that are not the most savory of looking creatures. Some can look like they came straight from a horror film or book. So a lot of these older folks would sometimes look at our table and kind of scoff almost as if Satan himself came into the church or school. We even had an older lady in a scooter once roll up to our table just to tell us how hideous our items looked. We would explain that a lot of the items were for table top rpg games and how the monsters were generally defeated by the players. Some would leave with an understanding and some well … I’ll just leave it at that.

On the other hand we had every single bored kid at these craft shows come to our table just say that it was the coolest table in the place.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Friends and word of mouth. This is the most powerful type of advertising that you can get.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thegeekfoundry.com/
• Instagram: @thegeekfoundry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegeekfoundrypa
• Other: Tiktok: @thegeekfoundrypa

Image Credits
All photos were taken by Jason and Nicole Oswalt.