September Love Letter: It Takes a Few Good People
From the first design to the finished product, meet the partners who help bring Safran Everyday to life.
After a busy summer of traveling, I wanted to spotlight the production partners who help make our products. But first, I want to walk you through how everything gets made, start to finish!
It starts with a need
When I bought a house in 2020, I suddenly needed all the basics: toilet paper holders, towel bars, hooks (basically everything we sell... see the trend?). And when I went looking, I felt stymied.
I didn't want to shop at a big box store, or at the places with perceived luxury but cheap materials and questionable methods. As I mentioned in my last love letter, slow fashion was a big influence on me, and I kept asking myself: where is the slow fashion movement for home goods?!
I'd already used CAD and steel laser cutting in my own art practice, so designing home goods that way felt within reach. My first couple of attempts didn't come out well. The sizing and placement were off. But eventually I got there, and the minimalist TP holder was born.
Everything else came next. The double hooks, because they're classic and needed everywhere. The key hook, because my partner Matt kept misplacing his keys. (Spoiler alert: he still does, because he forgets to actually use it.) Then the scallop shelves, which I was making for spots around my house until a friend told me they should go into production for the shop.
Along the way, I've built relationships with some amazing manufacturers. Here's who they are.
SendCutSend
This is where I started. SendCutSend is a super user-friendly site and a great introduction to laser cutting. You get instant quotes, tons of materials and thicknesses, and add-ons like bending, hardware insertion, and some powder coating. The tradeoff is that I can't get as specific as I'd like (I can't set the exact curve on the double hook, for example). But we still use them for prototypes, larger pieces like the towel bars and multi hooks, and a lot of our black products.
Totally Baked Powder Coating
To get more colors, I found Totally Baked about 40 minutes away in Freedom, PA. To say they're integral to our growth would be an understatement. We've worked with them since nearly day one, and we could never have grown without them.
It's run by two guys, Josh and Billy, who are flexible, communicate well through production schedules, and don't get too annoyed when I edit the list multiple times before they start coating. They're game to try new colors, and they're also honest when one is too difficult to do again (RIP neon line!). And I love being able to drive out, pick up the work, and see in person how it's done and who's doing it.
BenCo Technology
As we grew, I needed larger runs and more precise bends to get products exactly right, like a wider curve on the hooks. That led me to BenCo Technology in Honey Brook, PA, who we worked with for a number of years. They were a huge help with design, too. I'm comfortable in CAD, but some things stump me. With the large planter boxes, I needed all the holes to line up, and I couldn't figure out how to account for the way dimensions change when the metal bends. They took my flat files and worked out hole placement for a tight fit. The catch was they couldn't powder coat, so every piece made a trip: cut and formed at BenCo, shipped to Totally Baked for coating, then picked up by me.
Alloy Fabricators
Over the last two years, I realized we needed a more efficient system, and that I needed to spread production out to match each company's capacity. After months of looking, I found Alloy Fabricators Inc. in Lodi, OH (still regional, which matters to me!). Alloy can laser cut, bend, AND powder coat, all under one roof.
Where we are now
I'm really excited about our current setup. SendCutSend handles prototypes plus our shelves, towel bars, and multi hooks, which then head to Totally Baked for coating. Alloy makes the double hook, flip hook, key hook, double wide hook, and both styles of TP holder, and ships them straight to the studio, coated and ready to be boxed up.
This isn't an advertisement for any of these companies. It's a love letter of appreciation for all the people who help make our products!
Truly,
Maia