Daily Inspiration: Meet Nate Eberle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Eberle. 

Hi Nate, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started making wood jewelry about 5 years ago. Everything about the process I just loved. Wood pins are a super small niche that you won’t really find anywhere. This was very attractive to me, the fact that no one was in the same field of work. Over the years, I developed a very specific set of steps in order to create highly detailed wood pins and pendants. It was not an easy process to learn; it took thousands of study pieces to learn new techniques and how to implement them into my work. Eventually, things started to click, and my business started to gain traction. After years of being denied into shows and art fairs, I never let that stop my progression as an artist and pushed forward into the unknown. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been an easy road. There were several times throughout the last 5 years I doubted myself and was certain that I was wasting my time and should just move onto the next thing. It can feel very isolating when you’re on a path that so few people have taken. I tried to not get discouraged, and with the support of my wife, I continued to push. I also have a separate full-time job at General Motors, and trying to balance that with my pin business as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle was almost impossible. It is such a grind to work a 9-5, then transition into your business and work on that until you can’t see straight. This pit of working constantly is where I believe almost everyone gets stuck and cannot dig out of. To this day, I am still working a full-time job because I am dependent on the salary, but I am confident in time that the tides will turn in my favor and my wood jewelry will take off. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in making premium wood jewelry. I take sustainably sourced wood and turn it into a beautiful work of art. Every pin and pendant is meticulously hand painted in separate layers and then super-glued together. The tricky part is you have to be absolutely perfect when gluing each layer down because you have less than a second before it sets permanently. If it’s a fraction of a millimeter off, it ruins the pin, and you have to scrap it and start over. This can be extremely frustrating, especially since you just threw away several hours of work, but now you have to redo the same thing, except do it better. On average, a complicated pin design takes about a week. This is including two days for drying, one day for the stain to dry, and another day for the initial spray paint color to dry. The rest of the week is painting details and assembly; I like to give myself the time for each pin because if I feel rushed, mistakes happen and will ruin the piece. 

What makes my work special is each piece is one of a kind and will never be replicated. Every year I develop and create new designs keeping things fresh. This also allows me to explore and advance my skills as an artist. 

I am most proud of my perseverance. It is not an easy task to be an artist. You have to be completely determined to make the thing you like to do as a viable career. That is so much easier said than done. It takes patience and dedication to the craft. These are the lessons I have learned to appreciate over the years. I am also a bit of a perfectionist. The work I do requires so much precision and patience. At any point of the process, I could completely ruin the pin and have to start over. This used to happen a lot, but I have gotten so much steadier with my hands that I completely trust the process now, and accidents hardly happen anymore. 

What sets me apart from other artists is my niche; nobody else does what I do, so therefore my competition doesn’t exist. I have given myself that freedom to create and not worry how I compare to others. 

What are your plans for the future?
Big things are coming for Elevated Pins. I have finally found the full confidence in my work and am now able to start the scaling process. We are mostly going to focus on selling at electronic music festivals with the occasional art show. Our big move though is buying a sprinter van and converting it into a mobile hub for my wife and I to travel around the country and hit as many shows as we can each year. I also hope to collaborate with other awesome artists and create some of the coolest wood pins anyone has ever seen. 

I am also getting into video making. I have a YouTube I am trying to start up. It will mostly star an alien named Martin the Martian. He crash landed on earth and is trying to rebuild his ship piece by piece. The ship requires sophisticated wood pins to power it, but he needs to go out and find the resources to make them. 

I am very excited about this project and how things will develop over the series. The first video was released not too long ago. 

Pricing:

• pieces range from $50 to $350

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elevatedpins.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevated_pins/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elevatedpins
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrONbv2ARYhs8iaZf1qYsqw