The afternoon sun starts to go down as three friends begin to talk. They laugh at each other, finish each other's sentences and have a hard time staying on track as the conversation veers off into different tangents.
Rusty Guthrie, Ryan Murray and Jeb Gast all have a lot in common: shaggy hair, the fact that they all grew up together, a love of Vespas and, of course their furniture company, Il Veleno. It's no wonder members of this group are so comfortable with one another.
On top of the furniture company, Gast owns a Vespa store while Guthrie and Murray go to ASU. Don't let this fool you though. They are not your typical students. On top of homework, parties and finals, they are welders.
Now, don't go getting images of big, hairy men in a factory putting together machine parts. This is a different type of welding. The trio makes artistic furniture. Yes, real furniture. No duct taping the legs of chairs back together, creating bookshelves out of cinder blocks and two-by-fours, which is usually the extent of most students' creativity.
"Our creativity is spawned from our randomness," Guthrie says.
If that is true, they must be pretty creative people. Already, within the course of the interview, their conversation has turned to patenting "mumble language," modeling, underwear art exhibits and buying stolen skateboards.
"We met when I bought Jeb's stolen skateboard in junior high, and he saw me with it," Guthrie says. Luckily they were able to move past their rocky history and remain friends. All three were such good friends that about a year ago, they decided to go into business together. They named the company Il Veleno.
Guthrie begins to explain how it all began. "We were inspired by each others ... "
"Well, we really just wanted cheaper metal." Gast brakes in.
"Yeah, that's right, huh?" Guthrie remembers.
Metal and leather stores give discounts to companies, and since they were making a lot of gifts for their families, they thought it would be a good idea to go into business and get the discounts.
"I don't think Rusty has bought a present for anyone since like '95," Murray says.
"Not since I figured out I could make them," Guthrie adds.
Everyone who saw the gifts the three were making for people wanted to buy one or advised them that they should go into business together.
"We just decided to do it and try to make money." Guthrie says.
Although they are all three are good friends and under the same company name, they all do their own work.
"We will get together and tell each other our ideas." Guthrie says, "But we have our own projects."
By bouncing ideas off each other, they are able to bring some new angles to their pieces. Guthrie is an aerospace engineering major and sees the aerodynamic and physical laws behind things, while Murray is a sculpting major and has more artistic eye.
While all collaborate together, they have their own styles and target audiences.
Gast likes to make things out of fans, such bookshelves. He targets the more artistic college student.
Murray likes to work with stainless steel; he likes to make lamps and targets business professionals.
Guthrie likes to recreate things like lamps, couches and chairs. He targets more the "overpriced wanna be celebrities," he says. He adds he likes to make stuff "look modern while using antiques."
They can make anything out of anything, they say, and add they are good at taking antiques and creating something totally new with them. Murray once made a coffee table out of an old plane windshield, while Guthrie made a lamp out of antique motorcycles and bent chairs. But it doesn't end here. Future goals include making a lamp out of underwear, a bed that looks like it is floating and bar stools out of propeller blades.
"We just use anything that's around ... anything that's cool," Murray says.
Furniture was a gradual transition, although they have been welding for years. It started as art, then became somewhat useful art and then became useful and artistic. Although with school and other commitments, they admit it is hard to spend a lot of time working on the company. They are trying to get a little storefront display in addition to showing their work at First Friday in Tempe, but decided they don't want to worry about the future too much.
The trio can be contacted at sales@ilveleno.com. Each does a lot of commissioned work, but even without the company, they would all still weld.
"It makes you feel powerful to make something out of metal, 'cause it makes you feel like you can do anything you want," Guthrie says.
"A couple hundred years from now, it's still going to be there pretty much in the same shape." Murray says.
"Come on, why don't you just admit it," Gast tells Murray. "You're just too lazy to drill a hole and stick a bolt in it."
"Pretty much," Murray confesses and laughs.
Reach the reporter at samantha.xanthos@asu.edu.
