Forging and Casting Fundraiser is LIVE

The Forging and Casting fundraiser is live! If you head to that page you'll find a place where you can support/donate towards our goal. We're aiming to get a few new machines this year that will improve the quality of the metal studio. Namely, we're looking at getting a 3D Printer and a Vacuum Sealed Casting Machine. Each of these machines will enable us to more efficiently craft specialized hardware. Currently the forged belt buckles take an exorbitant amount of time to craft, and you can see that reflected in what I have to charge for the belts in order to turn some sort of profit. That being said, when you're a very small team its in everyone's best interest to make things as efficient as possible on the production side of things. Luckily we live in an era where technology makes it much more viable for a small team like ours to make a large selection of items, provided you can afford to purchase said technology. It's a big investment for a small business.

We're confident we can make things that hold up to our standard of quality with these machines, and as creative people we're all very excited to show everyone what we're capable of achieving. Our leather working is already top notch, and once we really get going with our metal working I think folks will be impressed with the fruits of our labor. Again though, its a big investment and before we endeavor down that road we really need the support of our followers. The good news is that for those fine folks who feel inclined to help us will get some pretty cool things as a result. Previously Ryan mentioned that we were going to have three tiers of support which is still true, however the highest tier at this point is strictly a combination of our two lower tiers.

The Steel Tier is for people interested in forged steel goods. The Silver Tier is for cast silver items. Forged steel items are a little more rugged and hewn looking generally. Cast silver items tend to be more decorative. Categorically speaking there's no difference in what your support goes towards when you donate. But we are keeping track of which tier gets more donors to get an idea of what folks are more interested in. Ultimately we will be doing both types of items however. Our initial project is a set of belt buckles, one forged steel, and another cast silver. If you've been following Ryan on social media you've likely seen him forge some one-off buckles that are similar to what we have in mind for these new projects. The benefit of these machines however allows us to make a larger quantity and therefore we can lower the price point substantially. Backers will receive a limited edition buckle and keychain crafted at the tier they decide to support, which is to say that steel tier backers will receive a steel buckle and keychain, and silver backers will receive a silver buckle and keychain. Both of which will only be available to supporters and so you have an opportunity to get some truly rad and unique hardware if you decide to donate.

I know you're asking... what are these items going to look like? Well the long and short of it is that we don't know precisely. We're working on a few prototype sketches which you'll see on social media soon enough but ultimately the final design won't be settled on until we have the machines and play around a bit wit them. We're confident that they'll be awesome and worth every penny of your support though. Naturally you'll be able to follow along as we develop each item and even be able to provide some input too. 

Hopefully we reach our goal quickly and we can get rocking on these projects and a lot more. If you're able to I highly recommend getting in on the donation stage of this project. You'll have our gratitude and *eventually* some really cool stuff.