There is a wooden display in Mikayla Asfeld’s office hanging above her desk that is partly filled with quarters and other coin denominations. Each circle is precisely the size it needs to be for each coin, from dimes to dollars. Her grandfather made it – “That’s probably where I got some of my handiness,” she shared.
Also tucked in the small office is a large plotter printer, sticker printer, and various materials she needs to create some of what she sells in her business, Multiple Material Arts. In the next room over, it was stifling hot with 3D printers, whirring away. In one of the printers lay a finished white gingerbread cookie cutter, which Asfeld peeled off to wipe away plastic remnants from printing.
And this is just one aspect of her business. Outdoors in her garage, she donned a welding helmet, lit a welding torch, and started working on a heart made of bicycle chain.
The SCTCC grad has only been working full-time for herself for a few months, and the different selections she offers through Multiple Material Arts are proving to be more than a full-time job. But she’s able to do what she loves and combine engineering and welding – and on her terms.
Asfeld knew she wanted to own her own business early in her education. After she attended college as a PSEO student, she started the Manufacturing Engineering major at St. Cloud State, but something didn’t feel right to her. She was too practical. As a self-proclaimed farm kid, the concepts her classmates were coming up with were too exotic and not realistic. Instead, she focused on the business side and came to SCTCC for Business Management.
Asfeld lit up when she talked about her classes with Mark Buchanan and Becky Shand. The Business Management degree prepared her for owning her business, and the experience in classes and in Collegiate DECA helped her gain confidence in herself. Maybe being practical was the path to success.
There was the matter of getting her hands dirty, however.
“I felt like I needed to do something hands-on, so I went to a starter welding course with Eric (McAlister). I saw the robot here and I did a few welding practices, and then I kind of fell in love with welding,” Asfeld explained.
In 2017, she had her Business Management degree, and in 2018, she had her Welding degree. Tig welding was her passion, so she got a job at DCI working on small pressure vessels like dairy tanks and silos – a callback to her farm days. (Tig welding is the process of using a tungsten electrode and inert gas that joins two metal pieces.)
While she worked full-time overnights, Asfeld connected with McAlister, who helped her enroll at Bemidji State University to get her bachelor’s degree in engineering. Plus they ended up taking some courses together!
“That was really awesome to have some bounce ideas off of and talk about the courses with in person, instead of it all being online,” she said. It didn’t take long, with a good chunk of her SCTCC credits transferring to Bemidji.
Asfeld now had her Business Management education, her Welding background, and her Engineering degree. It was all coming together.
She started working as an engineer at C4: “I started doing the real engineering of making drawings for the floor and all the work instructions, and then the tooling to go with jobs or how to actually put together the product quicker and easier for the guys.”
At the same time, Multiple Material Arts started to make its way to the forefront of her life. What started as 3D printing and welding projects here and there turned into a lot more than a side hustle. “I just started getting busier and busier. I basically had two full-time jobs at the same time.” Something had to give.
Now she works for herself full time, doing what she wants and what she loves: engineering and creating custom-design items for clients. This can include custom snowmobile parts, firepits, piping for cars, wheels, art made of metal, tables, jewelry, ornament, you name it. If you come to her with an idea, she will find a way to bring it to life.
“What I say I do is I engineer ideas to life from multiple materials and personal experience,” Asfeld described.
As an example, there was a request from a client who wanted planters that looked like the Easter Island heads that could fit a 12” pot – so the greenery would come out the top as hair.
“That was actually a lot of fun because I completely designed it at first and she said, ‘I don’t want them to be nice. I want them to be weird.’” So Asfeld ended up making them all different shapes, different types of ears, different facial expressions. And the client loved them.
One thing she sells a lot of that is relatively easy to make and easy to stash away is the motorcycle puck, a round, flat piece of plastic approximately 6” across that sits underneath a kickstand to prevent it from sinking into dirt or hot tar.
“People really seem to love those. I’m hoping to get my niche more into that because I ride motorcycle, too.”
She doesn’t just take requests – you may see Multiple Material Arts at local craft fairs, trade shows, and expos. Her metal art includes keychains, jewelry, display art like flowers, or light artwork.
When viewing Asfeld’s work holistically, you notice how Multiple Material Arts has allowed her life experience to find a perfect outlet. The farm kid in her spent her childhood helping her dad and grandpa turn a beat-up farm into something amazing. Summers meant constructing buildings, pouring concrete, wiring cars, and drawing plans – and they did almost everything themselves. At the same time, she always did well in math while in school, and when she took the ACT, it recommended Engineering or Manufacturing as a career path.
Her experience at SCTCC allowed her to explore different options and to “learn hands-on things I always wanted to learn. That’s a really valuable skill in the field and for yourself.” Then it set her on a path that led her to Multiple Material Arts.
Asfeld has managed to create a career from two lifelong passions grown from her childhood. It’s not often a person finds a career aligning with their passion, but for Asfeld? It just took her a little bit of time.