About Elderwood Academy

Elderwood Academy is a collective of nerdy artists and gamers founded in 2014 by Quentin Weir and Dan Reiss. We met playing games together and have since shared our passion for goofiness and craft projects. We launched with Hex Chests, a pet project for D&D and other tabletop games until Quentin’s then-ladyfriend put the story of Hex Chests on Reddit and Imgur. The community response was so sweet and encouraging that we launched a Kickstarter campaign and Elderwood Academy was born. Since then we’ve added a host of new gaming-themed gear including Spellbooks, our deck box/rolling tray disguised as bespoke ancient arcane tomes, and Scroll & Codex, our dice tower and rolling tray pairing. If you love nerdy projects as much as we do, you can keep track of us on Twitter (@elderwoodboxes), Facebook (www.facebook.com/ElderWoodBoxes) or Instagram (@elderwoodacademy).

Our Co-founders?

 Quentin is passionate about robotics, education, and gaming. You may also stumble upon some games floating through the ether, such as Happy Salmon, Fast Flip, or Pass the Pandas, co-designed by Quentin and his friend Ken.

 Dan is the proud owner of a beard which he sunbathes daily. He is a citizen of the Netherlands (not a euphemism), was born deaf (he got better), and smells nice (he’s good at smelling). On the side he enjoys D&D, DNR, and DNI.

In their materially consistent lives, Dan is an internal medicine resident in San Francisco who loves gaming. Quentin is an engineer and board game designer who spends 100% of his time playing games and loses a lot of sleep in the process.

Meet some of us!

Betsy is one of our lead artists, engineer and all around Badass [can we say this?] at Elderwood. A classical sculptor and former figure skater, she has drowned twice (once on land) and loves cats, but is deathly allergic :( you can find her work here

Kevin is one of our leads for Convention Ops, Kevin is a multi-purposeful goofball. A big fan of Gengar, Kevin can likely find joy in any gaming related topic you wish to discuss. Kevin also builds robots with Quentin!

John is one of our Production Managers. Having migrated to Michigan from the wild lands of Pennsylvania a few years back, he enjoys miniature painting and is also a living Historian, participating in Revolutionary War and WW1 Reenactments.

Crystal is our Centurion Sorceress! In her free time away, Crystal plays in a rock band and is a Scorpio Moon. She always [always?]  speaks Chinese and has an identical twin sister.

Alongside Kevin, Robbie is also a lead for our Convention Ops. You can also find him working on Scrolls and Spellbook Mini’s around the shop. In his free time, he loves playing video games and making DM screens for his friends campaigns. His degree is in folklore, which can often lead to some very interesting topics of conversation.

Tess is our Spellbook and Spellbook Mini Enchantress. A self-proclaimed cat lady and weirdo, Tess enjoys dead animals (not in a weird way, promise) and practicing mysticism (this doesn’t make it better, does it?). Her favorite game is Scrabble!

Andy is one of our Scroll Casters along with Robbie. Outside of work, he really just loves the heck out of D&D! Talk nerdy to him @AndyDempz on the tweets.

Adrian arguably has one of our most enviable jobs, as foil press Master. Every piece of artwork to be shown on a leather base, is hand pressed by him! In his free time, he enjoys playing video games and spending time with his cats (we’re cat people here).

Elisa is our Codex Countess. Although she thinks it’s cliche, Elisa is a happily married mother of three. We all wish to reside at her house, as her husband is a chef, and Elisa loves to bake. Her favorite game is Euchre.

Greg operates our lasers (pew pew!) and is our unofficial consumer-of-nerd-media. He plays probably too much Pokémon (his favorite is Ninjask) and Minecraft, or whatever shiny new thing has distracted him from those. In his spare time, he enjoys playing a 5-string cello.

Too tall to be a Keebler elf, Eric spends his time in the woodshop. Outside he enjoys playing and teaching music, hot Cheetos and coffee (sometimes together), and talking with his dog, Art. When you see him, chances are he’s listening to jazz. Spirit animal: Minotaur

Amelia is our resident Druid of order and teleportation (Shipping Manager). She’ll also try organizing just about anything that isn’t nailed down. She loves studying history, working in her vegetable garden, and playing games of all kinds.

Our Artists

Claire Myers is a graphic designer who loves to draw, read, game, costume, and tell stories. She is passionate about brand strategy and packaging design and has recently been applying those interests by dipping her toes into board game design. Her favorite games at the moment include Skyrim (still), Katamari,  Evolution, Equinox, and White Wolf’s New World of Darkness series. Of course, tabletop RPGs will forever have her heart.

Our Office

We do all of our crafting and production at our own shop in Michigan, but we got our start at a lovely, wonderful, special, glorious place called Maker Works. Maker Works allows you to use a wide array of well-maintained, sophisticated machinery (mills, lathes, presses, lasers, 3D printers, saws, etc) for a pittance every month. Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it is stocked with friendly staff and frequented by the many engineers formerly or currently employed by the big three. If you’re in the area, take a look; it’s a unique environment and affords anyone the ability to shape their dreams into reality.