While researching and writing her historical fiction novel about a female blacksmith, Sara became enthralled by the American tradition of home- made cookware and decided to try her hand at metalsmithing. Steeped in a tradition that dates back to the 1800s, Sara procures the raw and spun copper from family-owned and operated American businesses, and then personally drills, rivets, hand-tins, buffs, and polishes each piece in her garage workshop in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
“I use 200-year-old tools to build replica cookware used in pioneer kitchens,” Sara says. “It helps connect me to the way life used to be, and it helps connect me in a very tactile way to my craft and my family. It’s the hands-on shaping, with my children running around near me, that creates a real feeling of being present.”