MavenMetalsInc

On Etsy Since 2011, we are a husband and wife run shop located in beautiful Coeur D’Alene Idaho. Working side by side, Ben and I handcraft every custom piece with care, thoughtfulness and pride. Every keychain, leather bracelet, or custom necklace we make tells a customer’s personal story and we are obsessed with crafting each piece to the best of our ability!

As far back as I can remember I always dreamed of working for myself as a successful designer. In 2008 fueled by my passion for graphic design, and off-road sports I started my own boutique apparel line for women in off-road sports. This was my foray into entrepreneurship and would prove to be challenging but also extremely rewarding.

In 2011 after a few years designing clothing I decided to add some personalized jewelry to my line. Starting with just a hammer, a $20 set of handstamps, and a folding plastic table I started hand stamping necklaces in our spare bedroom. I immediately fell in love with personalizing jewelry and wanted to share it will everyone I knew! Searching for ways to share my new passion I soon learned about Etsy and shortly after opened my first hand stamped jewelry shop Gunmetal Gems.

My hand stamped necklaces and leather bracelets took off within just a few short months of opening. While I worked on my college degree in Graphic Design during the day I spent every night diligently practicing hand stamping in order to perfect the craft. I was obsessed with making the stamped impressions as straight, even and clean as I could. I knew how important many of these orders were to the people who were ordering them and that drove me to craft the highest quality product that I could for them.

As more and more orders came in I quickly became overwhelmed with not only fulfilling the orders but running and managing the shop. Barely able to keep up with school, my web design internship, and hundreds of orders I eventually had to get my husband Ben to start helping me. He would get up hours before his full-time job as a Mercedes Benz technician to help sand metal, cut shipping labels and make the leather bracelets. Soon he was working before and after work as well as every single weekend to help me stay up with my orders.

Together we consistently put in 100 hour work weeks month after month. After two years I decided to leave my Graphic Design program and follow my dream of becoming my own boss. Shortly after Ben went into work and picked up his tool box to come work alongside me in our new adventure!

Through years of trial and error, and hundreds of successes and failures we slowly learned how to truly craft our custom jewelry. Trying technique after technique we honed our craft by obsessing over every small detail of each piece we made. Nothing was ever good enough, and we always wanted to improve.

From the lettering, metal finishing, leather, to even our packaging. We constantly worked on ways to make every aspect of our business better!

Now 7 years later we are so proud to create our products using the finest raw materials and most advanced techniques we can! We still handcraft every custom gift from start to finish, in-house, one at a time. Creating custom gifts is our passion and we work hard every day to not only continue honing our craft but to also continue pushing and developing designs that will last the test of time.

Our goal is to craft gifts that you will be truly proud to give! Accessories that they will keep forever and jewelry they will never want to take off. Ben and I feel very lucky to be able to, not only share our passion but also meet so many wonderful customers. The stories and experiences we get to share with our customers through our personalized products truly bring us joy and fulfillment every day.

HOW WE CRAFT OUR PRODUCTS

Our Fine Handcrafted Leather
Our custom sized Leather Bracelets and Leather Key Chains are handcrafted 100% from start to finish in our shop! We start with only USA sourced, top grade, full grain, bridle leather hides we have custom made to our specifications. This leather has been chosen for its durability, soft hand, and refined appearance. We further refine the leather by hand polishing each hide individually in a multi-step process. This polishing helps to further smooth the finish, introduce conditioners, and increase the durability.

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Our Handcrafted Stainless Steel
Our Stainless Steel Keychains, Necklaces and Pet Tags are hand crafted from start to finish in our shop. Our raw stainless blanks are custom stamped for us right here Pacific Northwest using 304 stainless steel.

Every one of our stainless steel blanks starts life as a rough blank. It is then carefully deep engraved, hand shaped and finished into the final product. Because every piece is hand shaped and finished no two pieces are identical.

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Our Bespoke Engraving
Our lettering and graphics are deep engraved using a proprietary engraving/ finishing process we developed over several years. You will not find engraving like this anywhere else! After we deep engrave the lettering, removing up to 70 fine layers of metal, we perform a varied, multi-step finishing process of sanding, buffing, and polishing using abrasives we have custom made to our specifications. This enhanced engraving process creates a mark that is not only far more durable than standard engraving, but also beautiful, with depth and highlights that will impress.

We are proud to be an Etsy seller and love being part of such a fun community.

Thank you for checking out our shop!
Julie & Ben