About EWDC
Since 1983, East West DyeCom has provided an exclusive line of colored, anodized aluminum products to the arts and crafts community.
From its small beginning in a home-based setting, offering just a handful of items, EWDC has blossomed and grown over the years to become the only company to both manufacture and volume sell American-made colored aluminum products directly to artists, designers, jewelry makers, and crafters.
We now boast an extensive array of unique items and vibrant color choices which will allow you to design creations that look beautiful and stand out from the competition. Environmentally conscious and customer oriented, we have earned a significant following in the jewelry arts community and a loyal customer base.
We invite you to browse our website and try our products. See how colored, anodized aluminum can add excitement and value to your creations.
Motivated Risk Taker. Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Enjoys Working with Metals and Mechanically Inclined—Not Your Ordinary Woman.
These are a few words which describe Tamea Franco Woodward, Owner and CEO of East West DyeCom and Global Metal Finishing. Born in Georgia in 1958 and raised an army brat, she traveled extensively throughout the country, gaining experiences while keeping an eye out for her true niche. In the early 1980s, she attended The Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking in Queens, NY, where she realized her talents in watchmaking and watch repair. True to her nature of seeking out new learning experiences, she took a class in metal working in Gatlinburg, Tennessee; a class which included the very specialized process of aluminum anodizing. As she began experimenting with the process in her basement, her fascination soon became her new passion as it challenged her creative and mechanical talents. Tamea realized she had finally found her niche. Her research took her to seek out many different sources in an effort to gain greater understanding and expertise in this unique process. In 1987 she opened Roanoke’s first female-owned customized metal finishing business, East West DyeCom.
Today, 24 years later, she has split the company into two separate entities, East West DyeCom, which continues to serve its loyal colored aluminum product line customers and Global Metal Finishing, which provides commercial metal finishing services to hundreds of local, regional, and national clients such as Lockheed Martin, ITT Nightvision, and the Moog Components Group. She continues to thrive at the helm of both companies and her business has grown to accommodate 20 full-time employees in two Roanoke, VA locations.
Her other passions and interests include promoting women in business, serving as member of the Virginia Manufacturing Council to the Governor, the Virginia Business Excellence Consortium and healthy living through quality food.
Looking for industrial finishing? Visit our sister company, Global Metal Finishing, by clicking the logo below: