Our young son has always been a creative gift giver (a trait he must have gotten from his dad). The idea behind his new line of gifts started last year when he wanted to make something in the shop for his Grandma J. for her 80th birthday. Idea in mind, he sat down and drew a picture of a flower…”because all grandmas love flowers,” he says. From this picture Dave cut out the design in metal with his plasma-cutter and welded on a rod for the post. Back to S. again to add his own flair to the piece with paint.

Now does that look like one happy grandma? Not to mention one proud kid.

As Christmas approached S decided to go for round 2 by making some garden art for his other grandparents. Another flower for Grandma B. and a golfer, of course, for Granddaddy.

As you can see by the golfer, S’s designs are getting more complex. Luckily this is no problem for the guy he farms it out to – Dave always loves a good metal working challenge (plus it takes the pressure off me for a moment with S playing my usual role).

Handmade gifts are always extra special!

Happy Golfer with Bright Flower.

My step-dad — one of the hardest people to buy for. I think S found the secret.

The biggest surprise of all was the behind-the-scenes work D & S were doing to build a special garden art piece for me. My portrait in steel!
I love my long wavy hair and how he captured my less than perfect smile.

I have a goal to create a parent/child workshop where your young one can design his/her own garden art piece. Your child will start in the studio by sketching a design, then you can both witness the metal shop process (there will be other fun activities for distracted kids). From there your child paints his/her masterpiece and then you get to proudly walk away with a heartfelt work of art.

If this workshop sounds intriguing to you, please let me know so I can gauge interest as I plan the details.

You know that place around your house that you’ve ignored for years?  That one room or corner that fills you with dread every time you look it, and yet you still never do anything about it?  For us it’s the south side of the house; never landscaped, overrun with weeds and a stockpile for all the the things we don’t have a place for in the yard.  It’s our outdoor junk drawer.  When I started referring to it as the ghetto, I knew it was high time we did something about it — 11 years after moving in.  

Last year I got all motivated to fix it up and began sketching some fence designs.  For awhile I was fixated on a lotus flower design, but came to realize it might be a little over the top for our old Cape Cod style house.  Plus, this fence  would divide our house and our neighbors’ along a narrow corridor only 12 feet wide.  Since the neighbors would have the best view of the fence, I was a little concerned it might be over the top for them, too.  Suppose they didn’t like it and planted some tall shrubs to cover up the design we worked to hard to create and wanted to show off to potential clients?  So my design process was put on hold.  Mostly because I needed to spend time on jobs that pay.  The cobbler’s kids never have shoes, and I was beginning to think we’d never have a cool metal fence to call our own. 

But recently I went back to my sketchpad and created a simple design I really liked.  Simpler than I would have ever imagined.  Dave ran with it before I could change my mind again and he gained momentum fabricating it this week.  We now have two panels installed and I’m eager to show the progress:

Two out of five metal fence panels installed.

This next photo shows the view passersby get from the sidewalk.

We will let the fence weather for a year to get a solid coat of  rust.  Then we’ll coat it with linseed oil to add richness & depth of color, and to protect the metal.  To maintain a fence like this we’ll try to add a new coat of linseed oil yearly.  Stay tuned for more work in progress and, hopefully soon, a finished fence. 

So, anyone out there want a lotus fence?