Hello, Metal Clay Friends!

My name is Mardel Rein. I started Cool Tools along with my husband, Alan, to offer a collection of productivity and creativity tools for metal clay artists.

The Cool Tools products that you see offered on our website are made by a small group of people in our little community called Heart Prairie. Our studios are located in the 110 year old Heart Prairie Schoolhouse along the Kettle Moraine State Forest, just outside of the beautiful town of Whitewater, Wisconsin.

As a teenager, a friend's father noticed my interest in his home silver-smithing operation. He kept it all in a desk-turned-jewelers-bench in a dark hallway in his house. I would find reasons to come over and visit so I could look over his shoulder. He was not only a silversmith, but a lapidary as well. I learned by watching him work. Making jewelry was just amazing and magical, and I was so excited I rode my bicycle 30 miles to a downtown San Diego jewelers' supply house to buy my first tools. Eventually I received my formal training as a bench jeweler at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco, California. There I received intensive training from master goldsmiths and metalsmiths in every aspect of creating fine jewelry from silver, gold and platinum through hand-fabrication and casting. I had the good fortune and pleasure of receiving hands-on training from amazing and talented people like Alan Revere, Yas Takaka, Karen Sprague, Vasken Tanielian, Starla Turner, Ed Friedman and others.

I love inventing tools that people enjoy using! It's such a nice feeling to hear how excited people are with the tools they've received from us and to see the cool things they make. Every product that I have created is a solution to a problem that I had when working with metal clay, and my goal is to share my experience and expertise through this website with those who want to learn the craft of metal clay jewelry making so you can create beautiful jewelry with lasting value with your very own hands...just like you always dreamed.