Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal SentinelSome of the mirrors that Scathain is known for rest in the showroom in Milwaukee. The company specializes in various textures and patterns in the mirrored glass as well as unique frames.

MILWAUKEE — For years, John McWilliam tried to crack the music business — composing, performing, hitting industry conventions, showcasing his skills, seeking the break that would let him drop his painting business and do music full time.

“I remember working really hard trying to make it,” he said.

It never quite happened.

But now, at 51, McWilliam has found another creative realm, running an industrial-chic, metal-smithing, wood-shaping shop called Scathain and enjoying the satisfaction of seeing his work purchased by the world’s rich and famous.

Reality TV personality Khloe Kardashian has a Scathain mirror in the Los Angeles-area mansion she bought from Justin Bieber.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris has tiles fashioned by Scathain in his Harlem townhouse, which was featured this year in Architectural Digest.

Celebrity restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump (“Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”) purchased a bunch of McWilliam’s 20-inch-by-20-inch tiles (some of them retail for more than $500 each) for one of her restaurants in L.A.

And United Arab Emirates oilman Badr Jafar, whose family operates wells in Iraq, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, “bought a whole gaggle of stuff,” McWilliam said.

Much of Scathain’s celebrity work has come through its relationship with one of Kohler Co.’s home furnishings units, the tile and stone supplier Ann Sacks. That relationship dates to a chance encounter and an overheard conversation five years ago.

McWilliam’s longtime painting and plastering business had folded amid the housing crash, and he’d begun silvering mirrors and working in metal. He’d found a bit of early success, most notably fashioning artistic pieces for a boutique hotel in Milwaukee, and the business was slowly growing around the time his cousin Tom, a professional photographer, landed a job shooting pictures for Ann Sacks.

Working at the tile firm’s showroom on E. 18th St. in New York, Tom overheard a lament from Ann Sacks merchandising director Michael Merritt.

Merritt had found a new product he loved — an unusual, antique glass tile. It was enjoying strong customer demand, but Merritt’s sole source, a tiny operation in Bath, England, couldn’t turn out enough of it or with enough consistency in the finishes.

“I was fuming over the installation of this product while they were photographing something else,” said Merritt, who since has left Ann Sacks, “and (Tom) is like, ‘You know, my cousin works with mirror in Milwaukee.’”

It took awhile — nearly two years as McWilliam remembers it — but eventually an agreement was reached; tiles were designed, fashioned and shipped; and McWilliam got his first check from his new customer.

“It said ‘Kohler’ on it, and I’m like, ‘Wow … is this for real?’”

It was. In fact, Scathain now sells about $500,000 a year in tiles to Ann Sacks, McWilliam said.

The Milwaukee shop’s products have proved very popular, said Robin Richter, spokeswoman for Kohler’s interiors businesses.

Through Ann Sacks, McWilliam connected with celebrity interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

Bullard, whose clients have included Elton John, Cher, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Tommy Hilfiger and Kid Rock, did the post-Bieber makeover of Kardashian’s house.

Now, he’s specifying more of Scathain’s work, which he called “truly beautiful,” for a luxury boutique hotel in Istanbul.

“It’s hard to find real artists who understand the quality level that I need in my projects,” Bullard said in an email. “… I am a huge advocate of using artisans and am thrilled to find such a quality manufacturer in Milwaukee.”

‘Focused on the art’

The artist in McWilliam — who started on classical guitar at age 8, has a three-degrees-of-separation link to Andres Segovia and still plays daily, usually on his ’70s-era Taylor — feels like he shouldn’t be gratified that his work has found favor with the wealthy.

“You want to be focused on the art by itself, the purity,” he said.

All the same, it’s good to hear.

McWilliam is the sole owner of Scathain (Gaelic for mirror), which he’s built on word-of-mouth marketing, minimal outside financing and the skills of carpenters, metal smiths and other craftspeople Milwaukee has supplied in abundance.

Scathain — which also has done work for Harley-Davidson, the commercial-property firm of Wisconsin businesswoman and billionaire Diane Hendricks and a new restaurant at Lambeau Field — started in 2008 with no employees. Now, the firm employs 25 people.

Sales totaled about $1.5 million in 2014, and this year will probably be about $2 million, McWilliam said.

He’s aiming for more. He recently completed Scalerator, a six-month training program, taught by Babson College faculty, for Milwaukee-area businesses deemed to have strong growth potential. Scalerator is part of Scale Up Milwaukee, an initiative of the Greater Milwaukee Committee.

McWilliam gave the training program high marks.

He’s now looking to branch into retail, with its higher margins and the opportunity to work high-end markets on the East and West coasts.

And he is thinking about financing beyond the occasional informal loan and his $50,000 line of credit from the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp.

‘A lot of opportunities’

“If we get some support, we could launch more aggressive marketing campaigns and we could launch lines,” McWilliam said. “There are a lot of opportunities that we could take advantage of.”

It looks like he’ll get his chance. Sheldon Lubar, founder and chairman of the private investment firm that bears his name, read about Scathain and got intrigued.

Now, Ixonia Bank, where Lubar is a director and holds a stake, is in the early stages of exploring a relationship with Scathain.

“There’s a lot there from a talent point of view,” bank president and CEO Dan Westrope said. “And they’ve been growing their business plan and evolving on the business side, so I’m thinking they’ve got a great future.”

That should be pretty good to hear, too.