OFI 1743: “Toys Were Too Expensive, So I Had To Sculpt My Own Farm Animals” | Carol Herden | Carol’s Original Works | Re-Cap Episode

On tomorrow’s ag business episode I am profiling a gentleman who has an unbelievable passion for agriculture, but he is not a farmer.  However, he displays this passion through creating replica farm equipment and even replica farms.  So, for today’s re-cap episode I thought this interview with Carol Herden, talking about how she got started sculpting farm animals, was a perfect tie in.

Her original show notes are below:

Carol Herden is an incredible agricultural sculptor, and this has led her to a full-time career doing what she loves – sculpting farm animals.  It is fascinating to me anytime I see an artist develop their craft into a career, and even more so when they do it creating art that resembles agriculture.  However, in Carol’s case, her journey might be even more fascinating than that.

Carol grew up on a ranch in an isolated area of Montana between Billings and the Wyoming border.  She loved the cattle, and if anyone ever wondered where she was they didn’t have to go further than looking in the corrals.  This led Carol to constantly be asking for figurines of cows, horses, etc.  If it were her birthday, Christmas or any other time this is what she wanted.

Carol was developing a collection of farm animal sculptures when her mom walked into her room and simply said that she could not afford to continue purchasing these for her.  However, her mom was a wise woman and she didn’t stop there.  She handed Carol some raw materials that she had purchased for her, so Carol could start sculpting her own farm animals, allowing her to have as many as she liked.

This woke something inside of Carol, and this is what she has pursued ever since.  She even went to work at a foundry in Cody, Wyoming just so she could learn more about the craft that she was pursuing.  At the same time, she thought of a different way to pursue this craft through injection molding.  There was a company in Cody called “Y-Tex” that made ear tags for cattle that were injection molded, so she approached them and asked to learn about the process.

Carol now lives in Minnesota with her husband and sculpts and creates other agricultural artwork on a full-time basis.  She has expanded her offerings to include other items that are desired by people in the agricultural community, and she wakes up every day to the craft and industry that she loves.

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