Today we’d like to introduce you to The Mountain Seed.
Hi Rachel, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We are a husband-and-wife team, this is Rachel telling our story. Chris has been a carpenter for 12 years building decks, arbors, and general outdoor construction. Around 6 years ago he started working in fine carpentry and we haven’t looked back since. We still have the first piece we ever built together and it is amazing to see the growth next to the pieces we are making now. We guide our lives around leading a quiet life and working with our hands. We have spent countless hours in the shop doing that side by side. The Mountain Seed was started with a desire to create with and celebrate the beauty of natural wood. While our skills have developed that desire is the same.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Are there ever really smooth roads with something worth pursuing?
As I said earlier it has been 6 years since we first launched our business. We would have expected to be further along than we are. The largest struggle apart from our daily shop toils (wrong cuts, 3 trips to the store instead of 1, etc.) is just finding the right platform to sell our products on. Most of the pieces we love creating are not easily shipped. Shipping a coffee table will cost more in some cases than the table itself. It is a struggle we do not have the solution to entirely but will continue to search.
Another struggle a lot of people do not think about going into business is just keeping up the energy. There has to be enough energy to build the business, but also maintain life. So many go into their dreams so hard and burn out so quickly. This is something we have fought to maintain, the right flow of our lives to feed our dream and deeply love the process along the way.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are woodworkers that could be called “Jacks of all trades” we dabble in paper products and wall art. What we love doing though is wood forward furniture and home decor pieces. Sourcing wood locally, in a lot of cases milling and drying it out ourselves and celebrating the character of the wood. There are many times that we do not know what piece we will be creating until we start working with the wood and allowing it to guide what suits its unique form best. This is what allows are creations to really shine, the wood is the center of what we make.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I think for both of us it would be in large our time in nature. For Chris, his family was at the river as much as they could be. Camping in tents, splashing in the water, walking through the woods, and just spending time without distractions in nature. For me, Rachel, and my family we worked the land. We were in our gardens at home tending our vegetables, caring for the roses, on the farm harvesting, or at the pond catching dinner. Time spent in nature was both of our favorite childhood memories and shaped us down to our core.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.themountainseed.com/
- Instagram: @themountainseed
- Facebook: @themountainseed
