Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Steinman.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My love of building and making goes back as far as I can remember. Even as a child, I was fascinated with how things worked and seemed to always be taking things apart, attempting to fix them, and putting them back together. I helped my father do a number of home remodeling projects through the years and worked construction as a summer job throughout college, all of which kept me busy and allowed me to work with my hands. After college, my desk job wasn’t scratching that itch and I knew I wanted to continue making and building in some capacity. That opportunity came a year later when my family had the idea to start an escape room business. It was our family’s first dive into entrepreneurship, and as it turns out it would not be the last for me, so alongside my three siblings and parents, we started Missing Pieces Escape Games. Each escape room needed to be built out to look like a spaceship, ancient ruins, or other unique location and be filled with props and decorations for the players to interact with. My father and I were tasked with building everything and I was consumed with how to build the pieces to fit the room’s aesthetic and still be functional. Getting to work with my hands again and creating these unique pieces sparked something in me that I knew I didn’t want to lose once all the rooms were complete. I decided to start building pieces of furniture for friends and family in the free time that I had. They weren’t anything fancy at first, just small functional pieces like side tables and benches, but I gained so many core skills from those simple projects that I knew it was building, no pun intended, to something bigger. I made the decision to start a woodworking business soon after and I knew I would need a partner to help me get this business off the ground. After working with my father on all of the escape rooms I eagerly asked him to join me! In February of 2020 we found a shop space in Brooklyn Park, MN and officially started Iron Roots Woodworks. I love getting to work with my dad everyday, he always jokes that he just pounds nails but he has the same creativity that I do and I think that is why our pieces are so unique.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Starting a business just a few weeks before the COVID shut down was difficult for us because no one knew how long the effects would last and buying a custom piece of furniture wasn’t on most people’s minds, but we didn’t want to wait years to give the business a try so we pushed forward. We were having trouble getting businesses to buy pieces from us with all of the uncertainty and we struggled to get our name out there with no public events to show our work. We didn’t have trade shows or art fairs to talk with people and explain what we did or let them see and interact with our pieces in person. We continued to work on example pieces and practiced new techniques the entire year as we searched for new customers. By the fall people throughout the cities started reaching out to us about making pieces to turn their spare bedrooms and offices into more permanent work from home spaces. One customer put it best, “When you spend 24 hours a day at home you start to notice that rooms aren’t as optimized as they could be and you want an upgrade.” That really helped us get through our first year of business.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a small father and son owned and operated woodshop that specializes in one-of-a-kind pieces. We use a mix of traditional woodworking techniques and automation to create unique pieces that are designed to not only look great but to be functional pieces that will last. That first year we practiced a lot with using epoxy resins for both functional pieces and more creative art. We built up a specialty in using the epoxy to accent our pieces, not overpower them, which allowed us to make beautiful works from large wood slabs that would have otherwise been cut down into basic lumber. My favorite piece is one that we built while experimenting with epoxy. It is a black walnut hexagon patterned coffee table with white resin poured in between each hexagon tile. It was definitely a labor of love cutting each hexagon and laying them in the mold by hand but the finished piece is beautiful. It has been a favorite of almost everyone who stops by our shop and I am very proud of the work we put into it. We do our best to bring out the natural look of the wood in every piece we make because so much of the furniture industry right now is particle board and plastic that just doesn’t have the warmth of real wood. We built Iron Roots Woodworks with customization at the forefront; we don’t make hundreds of the same piece, we take on these crazy one-of-a-kind projects that others can’t, and that is what makes us unique.
What’s next?
Now that things have opened back up and are back to normal-ish, we are really looking forward to showing off some of our work and getting to interact with people face to face at the upcoming art fairs across the cities. We are just really excited to continue to grow our business with all of the great people and businesses in Minnesota.
Contact Info:
- Email: ironrootswoodworks@gmail.com
- Website: https://ironrootswoodworks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iron_roots_woodworks
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironrootswoodworks
