Ed Chew '99 Founds Wrought Iron Leather and Effects

August 14, 2016

"Ed Chew, a Putnam County native and DePauw University alumnus, has founded Wrought Iron Leather and Effects, a maker of handcrafted and custom-engineered tools for musicians," begins an article in the Banner-Graphic.

Chew, a 1999 graduate of DePauw, says his Wisconsin-based company builds "somewhat eccentrically designed products with a focus on durability," such as guitar straps, effects pedals and suitcase pedal boards.

The Greencastle newspaper notes, "A guitarist himself, Chew began the business as a hobby crafting guitar straps from the leather remnants of his handmade farrier chaps. Drawing on his studies in circuit theory and analog electronics while at DePauw, he moved on from guitar straps to wiring and housing guitar effects pedals in repurposed, vintage enclosures such as model train transformers, 8 mm movie cameras and silent butlers.Now, Chew designs and builds the pedals inside and out, from wiring the circuits to folding the aluminum enclosures. The pedals combine form and function inspired by literature and legends the likes of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and their characters."

A mathematics major and physics minor at DePauw, Chew planned to continue his studies in engineering but wound up serving for two years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua as an agricultural volunteer. He subsequently worked at the sustainable farming nonprofit Tillers International.