We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ron Landis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ron below.

Alright, Ron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Getting out of your comfort zone can be very rewarding in many ways. When I have an idea I believe in, I tend to dive head-first into unknown territory, damn the consequences. And I’ve done it several times. Risks don’t always play out in the best way but I always gain valuable experiences either way it goes.

I’ll elaborate on one particular gamble.. I had ten years into demonstrating early coin making techniques at Renaissance Festivals all over the country. The demonstration had evolved into something very special, and I felt it would do better as a stand-alone museum of minting technology rather than continue on as somewhat of a side show in the Circus, so to speak.

I took a huge leap of faith and had to put aside ten years of tooling designed to produce medallions to fit the Renaissance themes (Sometimes referred to as “Faire-Ware”) and start from scratch producing commemorative medals and reproductions of rare U.S. Coins. We moved to a remote location in the mountains to build the museum. It took two years and then landed a four page article in a popular coin collector magazine which connected us to a very large and enthusiastic audience.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I learned hand engraving through formal training at a now defunct trade school. The curriculum hadn’t changed in over 100 years, which is something I’m proud to have gone through but also feel it was the demise of that course. I started a small jobber shop for the jewelry trade in 1980 in Denver when I got interested in the local Renaissance Festival in Larkspur. My idea for engraving items “while-you-wait” was not highly successful, so I had an idea about engraving a set of dies and minting souvenir coins that I could strike right there. I was given a small fly press from a client and I struck my first ‘coin’ in 1982. I was so excited about the results, my head began spinning with all the possibilities.

So, to make my coin making demonstration more complete and authentic to the period, I went to do some research expecting to find some living history museum or guild of sorts to learn more about it. I even met with all the experts at the Smithsonian in an impromptu meeting, and they couldn’t guide me, but were very encouraging for me to continue my work. I figured out that it was my job to build that living History Museum and acquired a great sense of purpose in doing so. This became my main focus for the next 20 years of my career, founding the Gallery Mint Museum and also as technical artist for the reconstruction of the 16th Century mint in Segovia, Spain.

I’ve completely changed course since then. I guess I’d just lost my passion for numismatics, but I combined my love of music and developed a new style of fingerpicks for musicians playing steel guitar, banjo and dobro, etc. A big part of Landis Studios is designing and engraving master dies that are marketed through PotterUSA in Tucson, Arizona. They supply impression dies to a large number of jewelers and metal smiths who produce their own components from these dies.

I like to mix it up and also play with several music groups in the NW Arkansas area. My Bluegrass band, Sprungbilly plays every Monday night and is a really great way to get away from the engraving bench and cut loose on the banjo. I sit in with other bands on other instruments on occasion. I probably love playing as much or more as engraving, but the engraving gig usually pays the bills.

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

Friday, March 13, 2020 was the very day the world shut down for the Covid virus. It also happened to be the very day that Landis Studios launched its new website. I had a new direction in my line of art medals, but quickly came to the conclusion that nobody would be buying jewelry or silver baubles during a lock-down. So, I thought it would be the perfect time to get tooled up to produce the new line of silver finger picks I’d been developing for the past four years.

A friend loaned me $5,000 which, combined with some meager sales revenues was just enough to meet payroll and expenses until we could start production. Sales were enough we could get through until we could start meeting players at music festivals which were shut down for two years.

We’ve made it through and although not making huge money, I was able to raise wages for my one employee and have started a more aggressive advertising campaign.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing to me is that I don’t have to work a “real” job. I have a career doing things I love and work when the inspiration hits. If there’s no passion for doing what one does in life, there’s no joy and no point.. And in art and music, if there’s no passion, there’s no beauty. I continue to love my work as an artist, craftsman and musician and have no plans to ever retire. It’s more a life style than a career choice to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: landisstudios.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landis_studios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rlandis.studios
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ-WG9CRPIW0F2k4Mwc-reg

Image Credits
Ron Landis