March 20th, 2015
By Jason Parr
Hagen and Oats combines the aesthetic of your pinterest dreams with tool wielding, goal-setting business owners. All things we love at JSP. Just reading through this interview is inspiring – we can’t wait to see what the future hold for Hagen and Oats. Check their designs out on their website or Facebook page.
Can you give us a brief bio of the company and owners?
We love to be creative. We love to spend time together. We love tools. As this opportunity to do all of these thing together presented itself …we were obviously all in. Growing up we were taught we can do anything. We were were playing with tools and working on cars at the age of 5. Doing this type of art is inspiring to us and we hope to inspire others while we are at it. Saws, nail guns and drills are nothing to be afraid of! Anna Hagen ( the younger sister) works as a marriage and family therapist and finds woodworking to be the perfect balance of creativity in her life. Nikki Hollerich ( the older sister) has her degree in graphic design and has always as fueled her creativity through art, wedding invitations logo design and painting. This new venture is the perfect fit for us both.
What is the inception story of your company?
Our inception story is a simple one. About two months ago we acquired a bandsaw from one of the in-laws. We headed to the local hardware store and bought some wood and soon after we put our new tool to the test. After some trial and error, ups and downs – our first piece was made! Our intention was to create a piece of work to go over Anna’s fireplace, after posting the piece on Facebook the demand for more made our decision easy. Let’s make art, hangout, and have fun!
Where do you find inspiration for your projects?
By doing our Minnesota Love piece we spoke to the majority of our peeps, although we are bias, we decided that creating other states could give other people Hometown pride as well! Another avenue for inspiration for is our customers. If someone has a vision we do whatever we can to work with them to create the perfect piece. We recently had a client ask us if we could modify Minnesota love to create Minnesota Pride by painting the back planks as a rainbow. Such a fantastic idea! We love it.
What about future projects and materials?
Future projects are endless. We have goals to continue our business venture as long as we can. With the help of social media, our friends and clients we are hoping to spread the word and keep the creative juices flowing. We are willing to tackle any project you throw our way. We want our artwork to be original, handcrafted and custom to you. Materials and process: All of the art we create has a pretty extensive process. We hand age and distress every every single board we use…which makes them very individualized. Not one piece is the same. We cut out the specific design, stain the wood, assemble the cut boards, secure them, cut the wood again and create the frame. Mass production isn’t our goal. We consider ourselves artists so every piece is unique.
As a new startup, what are some of your goals for the coming year?
Great question. We love goals. We are both so new to this process so our immediate goal is to spend time together, create beautiful work that inspires us and to have fun. In May we are going to reassess and get a business plan and line. We are hoping to do craft shows in the near future but for now we are going to build our base with social media and word of mouth. We would love to see our work displayed at coffee shops, local stores, or art galleries! Overall this experience so far has been a blast and we are so excited for what is next!!!
Categorized in: Community, interior design
