How did Nightingale Metal Design begin?

I often get this question: How did my metal sign and decor business begin? The story is simple.

As I often do, I was shopping, just window shopping really, and saw a great sign made from metal that I wanted for our home. Before purchasing it, I mentioned my interest to my husband. He had a few questions... "Where is it made? What material is it made from? What is the thickness of the metal? What does it cost?"  After answering all of his questions he had a simple answer. "Why would we buy that if we can make it?" What? I had no idea we could make something like this.  

If we back up just a bit, my husband Steve owns a motorcycle fabrication and parts business, Rullo Custom Cycles. His shop has all kinds of metal working machines and tools. Apparently, the machinery he has at his shop can also create the type of sign I was looking to purchase. Wow! Fast forward to my window shopping......

After being told that we could create and customize my own sign for our home we went to work. I spoke to our Artist about the idea, he put the idea into a drawing which was pushed to our CNC machinery and VOILA, my sign was made. We then powder coated it (we have another blog article about the powder coating process). When I saw the finished product I was amazed! It was perfect! We showed friends and family. Instantly they wanted signs made.

As more and more people showed interest in our signs and the quality of the work, we decided that we could really take this somewhere. In no time at all, we started on a website, I started signing myself up for vendor events and shows to get our name out there, and before you know it we were Nightingale Metal Design!