Submitted by Amanda Connelly, St. Croix EDC
HUDSON, WI – Dave Brummel has a larger-than-life personality. In many ways, he is at heart, a showman. In another life he might have donned a top hat, epaulets and a whip as the ringmaster in The Greatest Show on Earth. His enthusiasm is infectious, and he always has a story or two up his sleeve.
Brummel is also an extraordinary entrepreneur, a self-made man in the old-world sense. He is someone who rolled up their sleeves, got their hands dirty, some might argue all the way up to his elbows, and built his business from the ground up out of clay.
Brummel’s business, Aves Studio, won the St. Croix Economic Development Corporations’ 2023 Small Business of the Year Award.
The big break – In 1980 Brummel booked a booth at the first ever World Taxidermy Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. For five days taxidermists from around the world entered their mounts and competed for thousands of dollars in prizes. For the first time, anybody and everybody who was a name in the taxidermy industry was in Atlanta. That opportunity would change everything and enable Brummel to build an empire out of clay.
“It was my debut. I came with 2,100 lbs. of Critter Clay in large blocks. I used a harp to cut it into small pieces, 25 per block,” Brummel said.
Like any good baker gives away doughnuts, Brummel handed out free samples of his Critter Clay.
“People could touch it, feel it, smell it. They were taking the sample back to the rooms at night and making their own miniature critters,” Brummel said.
The clay was gone in three days.
Brummel walked out of Atlanta with six international accounts and a reputation that was spreading like wildfire throughout the taxidermy industry.
“To satisfy what I considered the needs of that industry, which had to do with the pH, toxicity, malleability and longevity of the product, we created our own parameters,” Brummel said.
The potential for clay – The market for Critter Clay has grown exponentially over the years. It has been driven organically by the users themselves, artists and taxidermists who promote the product based on their own experience using the product. That built-in credibility has allowed Brummel to expand the use of his clays and machés into markets he never imagined possible.
“We developed what I call our customer advocacy base. I started working with people at that level heavily in the 1980’s,” Brummel said. “I take care of them, and they take care of me.”
Brummel cites a respected doll artist, considered a guru in his industry, who he has been working with for more than 10 years.
“You can’t find a better person to sell for you than one of the professionals in the doll industry who does doll repairs. He has been using my clay to repair his 100-year-old dolls, Brummel said. “I enable him to do that and then he writes articles and speaks to people promoting me and my product and it goes on and on. He is our new advocate.”
People started approaching Brummel asking him to create a product to meet their specific need or in a specific color. He responded by going back into the lab and creating solutions to their requests. After 40 years Aves Studio sells more than 40 products ranging from Critter Clay to machés and more recently two-part clays that include epoxy ingredients to add strength and set up faster.
His products can be found in schools where using a kiln can be a liability. A multitude of artists and industries use his products including sculptors, jewelers, prop makers, people who repair artifacts and people who build outdoor displays. His products have been used on the space shuttle and are popular with model makers for building prototypes including cars, rockets and even mice for computers.
Brummel has built and maintained relationships with several large commercial clients including the Smithsonian and for more than 30 years with Walt Disney World Services where his products are used for repairs at water and amusement parks around the world.
“We’re a clay company. Our products last longer in repairs because they are made with real minerals which are millions of years old. We provided 1,700 lbs. of our product to the Chicago Field Museum to make Sue the T. rex whole again. Thousands of pounds of our product were used to create a textured ceiling in a Las Vegas casino. Our products are talking to people every single day,” Brummel said.
Challenges and opportunities – Brummel learned early on that competitors would try to imitate or reverse engineer his formulas. To combat that piracy, he instituted a legal strategy that employs registered trademarks and pending patents to protect against knockoffs.
There are still a lot of people who do not know clay can be a solution for their needs.
“It’s grown every day since day one. We’re just babies in the world marketplace,” Brummel said. “Every building’s got something broken on it that could be fixed with one of our products. That’s 300 million buildings in the U.S. How in the world are you going to make that much clay? It blows me away when I think of what the possibilities are.”
Brummel does not own a cellphone and he leaves the computer work to others. He begins most days by personally returning calls from friends and longtime clients.
“My favorite part of the business is to hear back about the successes that people have professionally and otherwise using our products. I encourage them to try to make a difference in the world, to lead by example. That’s powerful,” Brummel said. “At the end of the day, it kind of makes me who I am. If I can’t help people, I feel like I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
As he approaches 70 Brummel has no plans to slow down. He only knows one way to do business, hands on, full speed ahead.
“If you give me a problem, I will sleep on it a bit and I’ll tell you, in short order, whether or not we can solve it.”
Here are the facts about the St, Croix EDC 2023 Small Business of the Year: Aves Studio, LLC, Dave Brummel – Founder / CEO / 1st Generation Clay Maker. Formed: 1976, address 455 WI-35, Hudson, WI 54016, 715-386-9097. Aves Studio operates a retail store at its Hudson location open to the public Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Website: avesstudio.com. Employees: 8, Sq. Ft.: 20,000.
Congratulations to Aves Studio, LLC!
