S&S Designs

As I had briefly discussed in my previous post, welding was one my favorite hobbies in high school. It all stemmed from being involved in the FFA program. That is where my welding skills really took off. I had previously learned to weld under direct supervision from my dad but credit my skills to my agriculture teacher.

A friend and I started the business our freshman year. His dad was a farrier (a person that replaces horseshoes on horses) and had many old horseshoes sitting around in 5 gallon buckets throughout the barn. We got the idea to start making them into furniture and art after being annoyed by the copious amounts of horseshoes lying around the barn. Since turning them in for scrap metal wouldn't turn enough profit; we figured why not try to make something out of them.

After soaking them in Ospho (a chemical agent that removes rust) and grinding them for hours to remove the remains, we would begin assembling them into art or furniture using welding magnets. One all the tack welds were put in place and were able to hold the product without it collapsing, we would begin to perfect the welds and make them look even better. It took us a while to figure out a system that allowed us to assemble the products quickly but once we did, the process was super easy and efficient. After beginning with wine racks, we moved to making lamps and benches. We also created napkin holders, coat hangers, coat racks, paper towel holders, and toilet paper holders.

After the welding process was complete, we would take the pieces outside to be painted. We used a flat black, rust resistant spray paint that can be found at nearly any Ace Hardware. Once the pieces would dry we would take pictures and begin setting prices for the individual pieces. No two pieces in our collection were alike. All the pieces had something that was different or distinct about them.

We continued constructing pieces until we had enough to sell at a festival or show. Many people in our hometown purchased the pieces individually after they learned how cool and unique each piece was. Many horse barns around the area have our pieces hanging in them and people also placed them inside their houses.

Below is a link to our website before we had to shut it down. I wish that we could still have it up and running but we we started receiving spam and had to close it down. Previously, it had all our products, descriptions, prices, and a way to order and contact us. Maybe one day, after retirement, we could potentially open the site and ourselves up for business again.

sandsdesigns.webs.com

Below is a picture of our first festival, our logo, and a few pictures of some of the things we created. It's sad that we don't do this anymore but it is something that I truly miss and wish I had time to do still. Please check out some of the pictures below. Hope you enjoy!