For years I was frustrated with the clunky boring fire pits available for back yards and car camping. So as an architect and designer I knew there had to be a better solution.
Something that is portable, that packs flat to take with your or easily store when not in use. A design that would not sit in the yard rusting, but something very durable to last for years! And also something that was a special purchase, but not a splurge. Of course there were months, if not years, of concepts and sketches… with no real breakthrough.

Then one night a solution popped into my head while lying in bed! I jumped out of bed, grabbed a pair of scissors and a Miller High Life box from the recycling bin and started cutting. A few minutes later I had a concept model. I ran into show my wife (sleeping) who was not at all impressed by a cardboard model.

Over the next month the design progressed from that simple model into a series of digital 3D models and full size laser cut metal models and eventually became a well developed design.
Working with a local lawyer, I was able to file for the design and utility patent and then over the next year have the patents approved! My first patent.

I had recently started selling a custom modern mailbox I had designed. It first went on Etsy and was being built in my spare bedroom so just kinda added this design to the collection and tried to get thing started. We even tried a Kickstarter campaign but did not get priority placement so that was not successful. But it did lead to discussions with a licensing company to pitch the product to big retailers. I began to realize this is a very slow process and all about the numbers and the people involved. Given the other business was growing and I was still working at an architect, this was an exciting path so we worked to make it successful.

Unfortunately, after a year or so the project was not getting the proper attention and we needed to go another direction. So the project went quiet for a bit…it was up for sale but with no marketing or push on our end. Then a fluke last minute entry into the Garden & Gun Made in the South awards announced it as a finalist! In the end it was a runner up but G&G publicized all the winners and set up a small market for their readers to see and buy the winning products. The response was insane! Many fire pits were sold but more importantly several contacts/relationships were established. One in particular with Carl. I believe the word “ingenious” was used. That felt pretty special. And we sold $20k that holiday season thanks to the publicity. So the fire pit had life again!

Now at the present we have the Fireflower Original and the Fireflower Spark as well as several accessory designs to complete the line and a team of talented people to move this product to market.