DC Customs makes metal masterpieces in Mantorville
Mar. 26—MANTORVILLE, Minn. — What began as a fun hobby for Darryl and Michele Clements — both now retired last year from the Dodge County Sheriff's Office — has turned into a business where technology meets art.
Their business, DC Customs, began in 2015, long before the pair retired, though now they can devote a lot more time to their new business. Michele does works in Rochester most days, but loves to helps Darryl with their business. Together they make custom metal and wood decorations using a CNC — computerized numerical control — plasma cutter.
"We bought a small CNC machine and we only started with a small 2-foot by 2-foot plasma table," said Michele. "That limits how big you can make pieces. So we bought it just for fun to make things for ourselves and I would make something for myself and share it on my Facebook page and my friends would say 'Oh, that's really cool. Can you make me one of those? I'd be interested in buying one of those.'"
Darryl has a history of being creative. He used to paint and airbrush cars and motorcycles and now can use those skills to decorate and design the signs and sculptures.
"A customer can come to me with an idea and they don't even have to have any type of art skill," said Darryl. "We've literally had people bring us a square piece of paper with stuff written on it and say this is what I want. I'll draw it off and send them a picture and they're like, 'Yeah, that's exactly what I'm looking for.' Sometimes it's hard for them to visualize. They can tell me what they're looking for, but they don't have the ability to see it."
After a little while, their friends started sending them photos asking if they could try to make them certain things. They are always willing to try their hardest to create what their clients are looking for, a practice that started early on into their business.
"After we started making things as a hobby, a friend said 'Hey, you know you guys make some really neat stuff. Why don't you come to this Christmas craft show in Mantorville?'" said Michele. "So we went and made some things we thought maybe we could sell there, and it was like wow, we did pretty good there. So we ended up setting up an LLC."
After attending one craft show, the Clementses never stopped. They love going to handmade-only craft shows and spend around nine months out of the year going somewhere for a show.
"The next thing you know, we're just kind of traveling all around the state," said Darryl. "I was working full time and she was working part time and we every other weekend, we would go to a craft show in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Iowa or wherever we could find a show. Every other weekend, we were traveling from basically April through December."
DC Customs usually takes items between $10 and $120 dollars with the ability for them to customize any items as well. They like to stay up on trends for their artwork, designs and colors. They have worked hard to incorporate different stains and paints and lighting effects into their merchandise.
"I was at the hardware store yesterday and everything was frogs and butterflies," said Darryl. "Well maybe frogs and butterflies are the 'In' thing this year because that's what they're selling. Two years ago, everything was gnomes. Now it's kind of faded out into different things. So we kind of try and keep an eye on what's trending, look and see what's new."
The Clements have upgraded their 2-by-2-foot CNC plasma table for an 8-by-4-foot table and have created signs up to 12 feet long. They have shipped all over the United States and into Canada as well. However, one of their favorite things is getting involved with their community.
They have made signs for local businesses and different sculptures. They even made a three layer, 10 foot tall sculpture for Eastview High School's graduating class of 2020. This will also be the third year that DC Customs has made a sculpture for the Mantorville Larger than Life Art Exhibit.
"The first year what we did was a 5-foot lighted tower," said Darryl. "Last year, I wanted us to try and do something different. So I did a 10-foot kinetic wind spinner. So as the wind comes and just slowly spins around. It's neat. This year, I'm not saying what it is, I'll just say it's large."
