We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Swigart recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I had been wanting to fully execute launching my business for years prior to it ever happening. Though I had grown up in the cabinet shop beneath my 2nd generation woodworking father, I never even considered this field. That is until I was a parent myself, in need of a flexible side income and creative outlet. I also wanted it to be something that contributed to the community and planet, shifting from VOC products to non toxic ones and somehow supporting wildfire survivors and our drought burdened Sierras.

Still, domestic life consumed me and I continued to put my dreams on the back burner for my “family’s needs”. Especially after having my second daughter. Despite my attempts to create a social media presence, mentor beneath my dad and others, let alone sell things I made, my business didn’t actually begin for 3 years.

It wasn’t until the Pandemic that things began to shift and I actually started to believe my vision would come to fruition. I used to always joke that I’d been “chipping away” at my dreams because I’d never even sold anything.

But in the peak of COVID, May 2020, my first custom order came and with it, the referral of friends for more. With the guidance of my master craftsman father, I took on a larger custom furniture piece and was shocked at the capacity I somehow had to create heirloom quality pieces. Then again, sawdust is in my blood. My late grandfather was one of the first cabinet makers and carpenters in the Oakhurst area.

But in the winter of 2020, life unexpectedly shifted. My partner and I of 5 years decided to separate, and with that I was suddenly without a home or financial stability.

Everyone told me to go back to waitressing or get a 9-5, apply for an apartment and hustle my ass off to make ends meet and barely see my girls with the split custody their father and I now shared. Oh, I was also breastfeeding my then almost 2 year old- something neither of us were ready to end amidst such a difficult transition.

Having been mainly a stay at home mom for 4 years (aside from a few part time jobs here and there) I knew returning to that full time soul-less grind would only hurt my girls and I. See I’d done it before while single and pregnant with my first daughter until she was a year and half. For almost 3 years I chose the rational, survival method and it burned me out and ricocheted me into post partum depression. I wouldn’t allow time to be stolen from me and my children anymore than life already had.

I got back on food stamps, moved back into my mom’s home for 3 months, drove an hour to the mountains to my dad’s shop every two days when I didn’t have the girls, and began the herbalist course that would support me through the hardest season of my life. I was also still homeschooling my daughter part time.

With domestic life now shattered, I threw myself full throttle into shadowing my dad and learning/making all that I could. 80% of any profit I’d put right back into my business and the non-profits that I partnered and volunteered with.

Becoming a lead fundraiser for Rebuild Our Sierra, the non-profit created after The Creek Fire, gave me further purpose and helped my business give back in more than just a monetary way. Everytime I’d worry my business wouldn’t make it or I’d want to toss in the towel, an order would come.

The week I decided to risk even more by moving my girls and I into a large trailer on my dad’s beautiful Oakhurst property directly beside his shop, I received a call from Abc30 interested in doing a feature on me. I was beyond humbled and shocked. Yet it just confirmed that I was making the right choice and again ignited my vision.

I’ve been growing and working in this field now for almost 2 years, living in a trailer to cut expenses, using food stamps and child support to get by while hustling on my days without my girls however I can to keep the momentum of this dream alive. I clean houses, house sit, work for my dad on remodels, and create meaningful pieces out of Creek Fire or drought burdened wood. A few large custom furnitude orders a year enable me to slowly reinvest in my business and support my girls.

Though I’m definitely not where I want to be yet, I took this risk to give me the most present time with my girls at their current age and the opportunity to continue chipping away at building this business and mission; taking carbon fuels from the forest or salvaged wood with a story, making something unique and beautiful out of them that has meaning and will last for generations. My hope is to not only keep partnering with non-profits like Rebuild Our Sierra, but also local tribes who continue the unseen work of their original land stewardship through cultural burning and meadow restoration.

This year I’ll attend my third herbalist course, go back to school to continue chipping away at my second dream of integrative medicine, while continuing to run my business, build my credit and save money to build a small home for my girls and I.

Often the next step seems so impossible and out of reach. And my imposter syndrome and financial insecurities still flare up more than I’d like. But then I remember how far I got when I covered my ears to the fear and naysayers, stayed focused and jumped into the sawdust. I hope my transparencies can encourage others to take the risk that’s been pulling at them. Because even if I end up failing and never “make it”, I’m damn proud of the journey and magic I saw along the way.

I look forward to the next chapter.

Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Being a third generation woodworker, I grew up in the woodshop. I actually would play as a toddler on a blanket with wood scraps while my dad finished cabinet jobs and as I grew older, I’d often help him. I think I was about 10 or 11 when I smashed my finger from a cabinet dad accidentally dropped and then at 13 I helped him redo a fence and deck. So I’ve always been around tools and been handy like my dad.

I think the discipline came when I had no other option but to make this business happen so I could have more flexibility with my girls. I still look back and wonder how I’d drive 45 minutes up the hill and back every other day practically for months (usually in tears) then work heavy machinery and learn to make something I’d never made before.

My non-custom pieces tend to be created according to what material I have on hand, usually scraps. I’m still that kid that can’t throw away a piece of wood to the burn pile. I’ll make charcheuterie boards, essential oil or tincture stands/shelves mostly from the cut offs and larger items like stools or tea tables from local Sierra Nevada wood I hand mill in the shop. I think it’s difficult for people to fully understand the time and intention that goes into pieces created in a small batch, intentional way because they’re so used to Ikea and often think “Well I could buy something like that at Target for half the price”. Yet what they don’t realize is most of those items are created in a factory, often by exploited workers, from monoculture forests overseas then imported here before or after being sealed with toxic vocs that can off gas for years- longer than the item will even actually last.

My business is trying to change that mindless consumerism that causes waste, encourages carbon emissions and does nothing to give back to the forest where the tree came. And knowing it’s safe for your home is nice too.

I think the appeal in purchasing from my shop, aside from my mission statement of “purchase with a purpose”, is that it’s extremely personalized. Down to the last sixteenth of an inch. I really take joy making items specific or with added convenience that clients may never have even realized they could have. My dad was always big on that and I loved watching his clients continuously be blown away by him anticipating their needs somehow in a unique design.

I also really love enhancing the natural grains and contour of a piece without removing those unique features and integrity that you can’t find in a store, like bark beetle marks or mycelium, charr from a recently devastating fire or cracks and knots.

My two most favorite custom orders I’ve made was a Black Oak Bed Frame, all hand milled from Sierra Nevada wood, and a Walnut and Sycamore Butcher Block Table, all hand milled from Central Valley/Sierra Nevada wood. To know where the wood is being sourced I think is also very special and personal, but then the insanely beautiful grains that pop once you mill and plane it down…wow!

I most enjoy projects like that because the process is so intimate with the wood that I get to learn how it bends and twists after being cut, then bends or twists again after trying to heat, wet, or weigh it down. Even once assembled sometimes it continues to show you who it is and where it came… moving how it did when it was stretching in all directions to the sky or when the wind would blow it in a storm. It’s alive still even after being dried of all its water because the moisture in the air is constantly changing and affecting it and it’s kind of an amazing process and thing to work with. Extremely humbling at times too haha. But the end result is always as magical as the journey, and I think my clients can connect to that because the intention and energy and love put into the pieces reflects in its finished stage.

Providing clients with the process, including the transparent inevitable hiccups that come with the field, and then the rewarding solutions, also make them feel a part of the creation and like they were there when it was being made and that’s something you just can’t purchase, even through Etsy.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I had began an Etsy site in the early days but after really looking into it, I realized it wasn’t for me. The fees and the platform weren’t in alignment with what I was trying to offer. Which made it difficult to market myself strictly through word of mouth, markets and social media. But at the same time I think being more small batched and exclusive has provided a connection and client repor that directly turns to friendship and usually referrals. Probably 90% of my clients I’ve created at least a general friendship with, if not some deeper. And though my customer base is perhaps smaller than the ambitious generator entrepreneur’s, each of my customers really get my vision and anti-capitalistic ideology. Sure, making enough money to take a vacation here and there and pay all my bills is the *dream. But actually affecting someone on a personal level, really giving them a meaningful lasting joy from something they spend money on, that I’ve created from scraps or salvaged wood…and then giving back to the community and forest in the process… yeah that’s more what I’m here for than the turn and burn production/sales of ecomerce.

Maybe if it wasn’t just me in the shop/managing everything or my kids were grown and I had more time I’d feel differently. I do plan to at least get a website up soon and see where that leads me. I do look forward to getting creative and expanding in that way. Guess I’ll let you know how it goes!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think everyday that I went into the shop feeling the weight of imposter syndrome and self doubt, that I still shakily created something, often sealed in my tears, and left knowing I pushed through and learned at least one thing that day… even if it was that it’s okay to rest and try again tomorrow.. yeah I’m damn proud of myself for all of those.

But specifically, last year a client of mine had requested a certain water based stain color for her vanity I was making her out of Knotty Alder. I had pre-tested a piece of it and double checked with her she liked the shade but when applying it to the insides of the cabinets I soon realized it was waay too blotchy and dark. I knew I’d have to refinish but had to finish staining all the insides so that whatever refinishing I did on the others would at least be consistent. I researched what to do, bought wood bleach only to learn before applying that it wouldn’t help. So I had to hand sand them all down on the inside panels then belt sand a good half a sixteenth off on the door frames. Then I called the stain manufacturer to see if I could water down the color somehow, mixed the smallest amount with water based natural stain… added a ton of wood conditioner to the vanity first (lesson forever learned) and stayed up all night til 3am getting the job done in time for delivery the next day. Client was extremely satisfied and I realized I can do hard things I’ve never done before.

Contact Info:

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