If you’re looking for great holiday gift ideas and you want to support a local business, look no further than Saline’s Trout Workshop. Specializing in everything from custom gifts to kitchenware to bookcases, owner Trent Trout integrates traditional woodworking with modern technology, using CNC routers and other tools learned from a program he now teaches at Saline High School. Trout Workshop’s beginnings however, start with everyone’s favorite backyard game: cornhole.
“I started [woodworking] back in high school,” Trout said. “I was working construction over the summer for a family friend, building houses. I would take home some of the scraps, just two by fours and plywood. My big first project was a set of cornhole boards.”
For Trout, a source of inspiration came, naturally, from his father.
“My dad has always been pretty handy. He always fixes stuff himself and works around the house. I learned a lot of stuff from him and he had a lot of the tools around already,” Trout said. “I couldn’t have gotten started without my dad.”
The cornhole board blossomed into experimentation with different woods and finer woodworking. Before Trout knew it, he needed a new space for his woodworking endeavors.
“My dad’s cousin was big into woodworking. He couldn’t do it anymore, so we actually bought out his whole shop,” Trout recounts. “We bought out all his tools, everything you could dream of. Then I really got big into cutting boards, spoons, trivets, other little stuff like that.”
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Trout began selling his wares at Milan area craft shows on the weekends. Seeking more opportunities to sell his work, Trout turned to Etsy, which he found to be a bit more flexible.
A turning point for Trout came from an otherwise mundane trip to Michaels craft store.
“That was when stuff started getting a little more serious. I was walking through Michaels one time and saw the glass mirrors,” he recollects. “I thought ‘Oh! I could make a wood frame for that.’ Then, I made a post on Etsy.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
“[The hand mirrors] sell like crazy now.”
Trout learned much of what he does for Trout Workshop from his time at The South & West Washtenaw Consortium, located on Saline High School’s campus. The program aims to provide career and technical education opportunities to students enrolled in surrounding school districts.
“That program developed my knowledge for CNC,” says Trout. “[I learned about] CNC routers, 3D printers, laser engravers, that kind of stuff. I tie all that into my business.”
The program allowed Trout to put a modern spin on a traditional craft.
“[Trout Workshop] is traditional woodworking mixed with newer technology. I can do stuff a little bit faster and be more consistent,” said Trout.
Of course, his products are not without a handcrafted, personal touch.
“There’s still the whole process of designing my product, programming the machine, and running it. Everything still gets hand painted and sprayed.”
As the holiday shopping season approaches, Trout expects the turnaround time to be somewhere between 3 to 4 weeks, so get your orders in sooner rather than later.
Use the code CURRENTMAG to get 10% off your order.
