When Seth Cummings’ father sold his medical-supply company in April 2012, Seth suddenly found himself unemployed. The 35-year-old Carrollton native had worked for his father for 14 years, and with some money saved and a lot of time on his hands, he was ready for something new.
“I needed a break,” he says. “You work for your dad for so long, and you’re, like, is this it? I wanted to do something completely different.” Only, he didn’t know what.
“That’s just my personality,” he says. “When I get into something, I just get consumed by it.”
His early attempts were, he admits now with a laugh, pretty crude. But over the next six months, he fine-tuned his skills, eventually making messenger bags, wallets, dopp kits, and more that were good enough to sell. He came up with a name—Of Mud & Coal, after his dogs—and a friend whipped up a logo, giving him all he needed to launch an Etsy shop in October 2012.
Two years later, he hasn’t quit his day job. He sells an average of 30 products a month, ranging from Field Notes covers, which sell for $65 a pop, to messenger bags in the $300 range. Each piece is painstakingly made by hand, taking up to 12 hours to create in the un-air-conditioned studio behind his Pilot Point house. Though starting a business hasn’t been without hardships, it’s also come with plenty of reward.
“It’s one of the toughest things I’ve ever done,” he says. “It takes a lot of struggle and perseverance. But it’s totally worth it.”
While he’s loathe to call himself an artist or push his products, lest he come off as self-promoting, he’s realized this is what he was meant to do. He plans to continue expanding his offerings, and maybe one day, open a store.
“I always wanted a business, but I didn’t know it would be this. I wasn’t even sure I considered myself creative before I started this,” he says. “It just kind of all came together. I didn’t know it would. I didn’t have any idea.”
ofmudandcoal.com
