Sara Dahmen is an award-winning writer and entrepreneur, as well as the only female coppersmith in America, manufacturing, restoring, and building copper cookware in her Wisconsin copper shop.
Sara’s non-fiction book on the history, science, use, and care of cookware, Copper, Iron, and Clay: A Smith’s Journey (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2020) feature her story and interviews from the biggest cookware makers in the world. Her historical fiction Flats Junction series (Promontory Press, Inc.), including Tinsmith 1865 and Widow 1881, has been critically recognized as well.
Sara’s expertise is highly specialized in a dying trade, as she is traditionally trained in an old-school apprenticeship to create, restore, and fix vintage or modern cookware. She single-handedly runs her company, House Copper & Cookware, using tools from the 1800s as well as current power tools, and bases all her new designs on lost American cookware shapes, sourcing all materials from the USA.
Her apprenticeship is with the tinsmith responsible for building all the period correct food and drink items featured in THE REVENANT, including the famous copper canteen. Yup - that was built right here in Cheeseville, Wisconsin (the actual name of the township - not kidding!).
Sara has published over 100 articles as a contributing editor for various international trade magazines, and delivered a TEDx speech on women in trades. She has been featured on PBS with Lidia Bastianich and the TODAY Show, as well as in Forbes, Martha Stewart, Popular Science, Cooking Light, Food & Wine, Veranda, SHAPE, as well as countless others. She is currently a model for Duluth Trading Co.
Prior to undertaking a career in metalsmithing and novel writing, Sara, a Marquette University graduate, was a producer with a Milwaukee advertising company, coordinating productions as line producer and executive producer for clients such as CITGO and MasterCraft Boats and the Tourism Departments of Belize, and Clearwater, FL. She created and ran a successful Silver-Anvil award-winning event company in Milwaukee for ten years.
When not writing or smithing, Sara believes in gardening and living as old school as possible on her Wisconsin mini-farm, where she keeps everything from chickens to rabbits and two species of bees. She can often be found hosting hands-on painting, canning, medicine-growing-and-making, or book club gatherings at her home, checking on the hives, building additional garden beds for ever more vegetable experiments, or developing other media projects.
In her spare time, Sara sews her family authentic clothing for their 1830’s reenactment camping. Every summer, the family spends along weekends with hundreds of other re-enactors, teaching school children about tin and coppersmithing. Sara lives in the country near Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her three young children and husband of 15 years.
