From Wilbraham to Sawdust

Christian Lund, Drake Casting Co.Two years ago we made the decision to move from Wilbraham, Massachusetts to Laguna Beach, California so that Drake Casting Co. could test its legs at the 50 year old art show, the Sawdust Festival

Christian started out in the business of antiques and jewelry. He owned Fancy That Antiques for ten years in Massachusetts. Want to do something scary in your mid to late 30s? Just change EVERYTHING about your life, including but not limited to: moving across the country, selling your business, and starting a new one on a complete gamble. I believe I was in survival mode at the time so it's a very big blur to me now. However, YIKES. What were we thinking???

sawdust festival laguna beachWell two years later here we are, at our first summer Sawdust show. They require you be a resident of Laguna Beach for 18 months before applying to the summer show. We have been through two Sawdust Winter Fantasy shows with success, so they kindly took us in for the REAL DEAL. Winter Fantasy is just five weekends, thanksgiving to Christmas. The summer show is two months long, it's open 10am-10pm daily. ALL DAY, ERR'DAY. Err'body in the club. Err'body in the 'dust.

Why did we decide to leave?
This is the number one question we receive on a daily basis. My answer has been very much nutshelled into something like this, "the weather". * (I am currently sitting in the DCC booth at Sawdust and someone JUST asked me that same question. I can't escape it.)

"Really?" they exclaim.

"No, not really. We had a really bad fire in our garage in the middle of a(nother) horrible winter. We couldn't live in our house for four months. We needed a change of scenery and Christian wanted to get out of the antique business. He has family is Carlsbad, whom we would visit and then wonder why we don't live here too?"

Christian and Katie Lund and dog FinnPost fire, and mid birthing of DCC, the West Coast Lunds pointed us towards the Sawdust Festival to show off this fetus of an idea. Now here we are. Christian, me, our dog Finn, and our two year old, Drake Casting Co. 

Stay tuned as we continue to document our adventures, and keep you updated on what we're up to at Drake Casting! 

Wilbraham to Laguna Beach


1 comment


  • Gean Bronson

    I am originally from Laguna Beach. We moved to Marblehead Massachusetts 2007 and after nearly 14 years in New England decided to back to California. We now a beautiful home in the charming village of Cambria on the central coast of San Luis Obispo. We very shock to see that the former owners had left this amazing small, but seriously heavy table behind. It has a free form granite top with cool cast iron legs. Since we once lived in Massachusetts I google the name of the company and there, you popped up.


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