Cool Tools is a woman-owned, small business with rich family history dating back to 2004. We have recapped our humble beginnings, including how it all started with just one Exacto Knife and an Eraser. We are proud to offer unique quality tools, partner with creative artists and innovate for you, our loyal customers. We hope you find our history both interesting and inspiring. We strive hard to meet our customer expectations in all we do and appreciate your going feedback daily. We are BBB accredited.

The Founder, Alan Rein

It Started with an Exacto Knife and an Eraser!

The concept of the business began in 2003 as an idea after my wife Mardel and I attended a class in metal clay. Mardel, always the creative one, and early on in our class, began making textures for the metal clay by cutting into erasers with an exacto knife. The results were a bit crude, but effective, and our fellow classmates' interest grew, and they immediately wanted to borrow and use what she had just made. In fact, they practically begged her to make and bring more to the following class. The innocuous carved eraser event was the spark to initiate Cool Tools and our corresponding website, cooltools.us.

 

Our Product Evolution from the Eraser

Moving beyond our carved eraser, the first official Cool Tools products created were named Texture Tips. As anticipated, the Texture Tips were an improvement on erasers cut individually, and manually, with an exacto knife. Picture in your mind a a small rubber stamp glued to the end of a a strong but flexible piece of rectangular foam rubber, which acted as a handle. Many of our early handmade and homemade products, went through many iterations and improvements. The handle was eventually upgraded to a small round piece of wood. The varieties and sizes of the textures also grew quickly.

 

CoolTools.us Website

Our products sold pretty well, we thought, considering the business was starting from zero. Of course, no one had ever heard of cooltools.us. The site was small with our very limited inventory of a few dozen Texture Tips, a few clay tools and not too much more. About 6 months in, we continued working on the website with more robust content, including how to work with metal clay. It was at this point we sold enough products to purchase our first iteration of cameras and lighting equipment to support our next idea, videos!

 

On to Video!

Convinced we needed videos to help sell our products, we created our first videos rather quickly. With either of us with video experience, I become a (the) camera man (big learning curve here, for sure) and Mardel, the face of Cool Tools. Mardel had a natural talent in front of the camera and we were both surprised and impressed with the quality of our first videos. After we launched a few videos, both traffic to the website, and respective sales increased significantly. To support such growth, we scurried to create more products and inventory such as Patina Gel, Silver Prep, Ring Sizers, Slik and Clay Rolling Frames.

 

Operations at Schoolhouse & Basements

At the time of Cool Tools founding, Mardel and I were living in a smallish converted one-room schoolhouse which fortunately had a basement. Given our space issues, Mardel suggested we use the basement to leverage the dark space for a video room and stock room for the budding business. The construction began with a bundle of 2x4's and a load of drywall. I remember the shipping area was a 2 foot by 3 foot closet armed with used boxes and cheap tape. In addition to my regular day job as a house painter, I was making products for Cool Tools while building out the basement. I was also the shipping department. At the end of each day, I would race off to the UPS store in our very used Honda Civic, 25 miles away, to get the orders out before they closed at 7pm. Even then, like now, in our meager beginnings, we were committed to same day shipping.

 

The Upgrade to a 5 & Dime Store

It was not long before we were on the search for a bigger place to rent or buy, as the schoolhouse basement was just too small for our operations. We ended up renting the basement (another basement!?!) in our town of Whitewater, WI. What used to be the bottom floor of the old 5 & Dime Store, became home to our operations including storage of new inventory, production, product photography and shipping. While still living in our schoolhouse, the basement continued for our video productions and also as a working studio for Mardel. Due to our continued growth, I quit my day job and we hired full time staff to run both shipping and production. I was managing inventory and people, along with my new job as product photographer (for this job, I was better suited, as I took 6 credits of photography in college). I remember taking endless pictures of findings, gemstones and metal clay products. Mardel continued with improving and building out the website, purchasing new products, creating projects, and creating videos to support both the new products and projects. It was about this time we transitioned to a bigger and better website platform. Those were busy and exciting times at Cool Tools and I remember them fondly.

 

Hit by a Freight Train...

By this time in the business evolution, we had hired a professional videographer on a part time basis, and also a fresh graduate from the UW-Whitewater, to run our newly formed, and one-man marketing department. Things were happening... we were still growing, adding staff, and making inroads into the metal clay community. And then, in 2010, like being hit by a freight train, Mardel is diagnosed with cancer. For a while, she continued working, because it was her desire. It was sometime in 2011 when both of us stopped working and focused on her health and recovery. Out of necessity, we put Cool Tools largely on autopilot for the last 6 months of her life. When she passed away in 2012, I was devastated. Beyond the stress that comes from losing your mate, there was also the emotional strain and tension of caring for a terminally ill spouse. Without a doubt, it was the most painful time of my life.

 

After she passed, I threw myself into my work at Cool Tools. And while I knew and understood my side of the business, I also knew I did not have Mardel’s talent and skill sets. I often asked myself, how was Cool Tools going to survive without her creativity? Would the business survive without her or would I lose that too? It was more stress compounded on top of the stress and grief of losing my wife, best friend and business partner.

 

Metal Clay Classes, Artist Networking & Founding the Learning Center

Eventually, I found ways to move beyond my own personal grief and found creative workarounds for the business. Mardel’s passing forced me to find other artists to continue her creative arc and vision. I explored more metal clay and metalsmithing classes where I honed my own skills and met many talented artists. Along this path, I attended Lisel Crowley's Metal Clay Mojo in Connecticut. There, Lisel and I became fast friends, and she, along with a growing list of other artists, made great contributions to the Cool Tools Video Library and is today known as our Learning Center. It was there that I was re-introduced to Bill Struve, a metallurgist, metal clay promoter, and in my opinion a raving genius. Together, he and Cool Tools became the venue for his brand of metal clays. Beyond his base metal clays, he invented EZ960 Sterling Silver and FS999 Fine Silver metal clay for Cool Tools exclusively. What seemed to me to be against all odds, Cool Tools survived these difficult times. In hindsight, I can now see the business became stronger. Mardel was a great artist, and gets, in my eyes, enormous credit for her early work. Without her, Cool Tools would not exist. In fact, it has taken many talented artists to step into her “shoes”. With our humble foundation and lasting vision, I believe the strength of the Cool Tools success lies in its ability to produce our very own products, source quality products, attract and feature talented artists with multiple points of view, and build upon both our “best in class” Video Library and Learning Center.

 

Cool Tools today finds it home in a 8,000 square foot, stand alone building in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Our new home I personally designed to accommodate all of the business' needs. Since I sold the business in 2019 to the talented Rhonda Barnett (Rein), Cool Tools boasts a full time creative metalsmith, enameling and metal clay artist, photographer, videographer, with talented customer service, production and shipping staff. New ideas, products, metal clays, videos, artists and creative points of view continue to keep the business robust and moving into the future.

 

Today's Owner, Rhonda Barnett (Rein)

My Beginning at Cool Tools

My story with Cool Tools all began in 2010, when I graduated high school and was accepted into the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Thankfully, my Uncle Alan called me after graduation and asked if I would like a job at his business, Cool Tools. He offered the flexibility of working based on my schedule in both the summer but also when I started at college. With this generous offer of both work and schedule flexibility, it was an offer I could not refuse. My schedule was simple at first as I did not have classes on Fridays, so I began working every Friday 7:30 am – 4 pm. To learn the business and their vision, Alan and I would go to lunch every Friday. It was also a lovely way for us to further bond as niece and uncle. I reflect on these valuable moments often.

 

Learning the Entire Business

I started in production, which included pulling orders, packaging products, labeling products, receiving inventory, and even making products (loved this role). As the years went on through college, I took on more hours and more roles in the business. By my senior year, I was no longer working in the production or shipping areas, but on the website. This was the same year that google changed their algorithm, and we were no longer showing up on the first page of google. We had to revamp the website, which was quite the task. I also took on the role of managing the books, with the intention of adding this to my resume for a future career in accounting.

 

Upon Graduation

In 2015, I was about to graduate with a double major in Accounting and Sociology, and I began looking for jobs. I was just about to accept an accounting position, when Alan stepped in and gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, again! Alan wanted me to continue my work at Cool Tools but also offered generous time off to travel, which would not be feasible in a corporate accounting position. My work continued with the website and managing the books, but also included the purchasing agent position. Serving as the purchasing agent, I managed and purchased inventory, maintained relationships with vendors and managing new products! I was thrilled!

 

Manager and Now Owner!

Due to my grasp of the business and continued growth, my position evolved into manager of the entire business, including marketing. I dove deep into every role, learning and growing into every aspect of the business. With the exception of being a videographer, I am proud to have worked in every position at Cool Tools.

 

In 2019, Alan was ready to retire. With my proven experience and success we worked collaborative on a transition plan, including the pathway for purchasing the business. On October 1, 2019 I officially purchased the business. I am proud to be the owner of Cool Tools and the responsibility to carry on the legacy and vision of both Alan and Mardel.

 

Our foundational roots will not be forgotten and I am proud to operate a woman-owned, “family business” with our committed staff of 8 today. We continue our small business mentality with top notch customer service, quality products and the sharing of invaluable educational content.