Welding and school spirit come together for the students of
Colorado’s Hayden School District.  Each of the schools are welding a mascot — and get this — they’re welding it for one of the other schools!

Hayden welding students design steel pieces depicting school mascots

By Jack Weinstein Sunday, January 31, 2010

Hayden — Kevin Kleckler, director of the Babson-Carpenter Career and Technical Education Center, hopes a project some of his welding students are working on will promote goodwill among the area school districts.

Hayden School District students participating in the welding program at the vocational education facility are designing and creating steel pieces, made from scrap metal, that depict the mascots of the Steamboat Springs, South Routt and Moffat County school districts.

Senior Oscar Rodriguez and junior Chris Zirkle completed Moffat County’s bulldog mascot last week. They had planned to donate the mascot to the school’s student leadership.

A student group in the welding class recently completed the Soroco ram. Another group is nearly finished with the Steamboat Springs sailor.

Rodriguez and Zirkle, having finished the bulldog, began a new project last week. On Tuesday morning, they were piecing together steel that eventually would depict the Denver Broncos logo.

When Rodriguez and Zirkle finish the Bronco in the next few weeks, it will be about 5 feet long and 3 feet tall. They’ll eventually present it to the Broncos through a contact Kleckler has with the team.

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Through the wonderful social medium that is Facebook, we have been fortunate enough to meet a variety of dedicated and uniquely talented women welders who are working their way through life with a torch in hand. Here’s what Karine Maynard says about welding, and life:

My name is Karine Maynard, and I live in central Kentucky. I work as a blacksmith who helps to make ornamental & architectural ironwork, mostly custom jobs, like railings and balconies; sometimes we get smaller commissions for tables, fire screens, etc.

Growing up on a tree farm in Wisconsin, my father also had an auto parts store and I’d probably still be there and running the place now, except that when it came time for him to retire he said it was “no business for a girl,” so I went to college and one of the things I studied was art.

I got my introductions to working in metal in jewelry-making classes, and I studied everything including political science, foreign languages and history – but really my early years in the country surrounded by auto shops & farming gave me the taste for things “hands on”. I also traveled a lot internationally in college and that really expanded my ideas as well as introduced me to other cultures and interesting people.

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In one of the most original, sad, and, therefore, daunting tasks I’ve ever heard of, Natascha Whitehurst is using her talent for welding to fabricate her own parents’ tombstones.

Instead of the usual headstones, Natascha is crafting two oak stumps (made from a water heater tank), connected by a root (made from an exhaust pipe), bearing their names and dates etched in the metal.

Welder honors her Mother & Father

By Laura Gutschke
Posted January 2, 2010

TUSCOLA — Rusted metal scrap objects long past their original function are finding new life as art at the hands of Natascha Whitehurst.

One of her current projects also is her most personal. She is crafting out of a discarded water heater’s inner steel tank a double tombstone for her parents. The tombstone looks like two oak stumps connected by a root, to be made out of a vehicle exhaust pipe.

“Instead of buying new, I like using what is already out there,” Whitehurst said.

Rows of small welding beads will run down the side of the tank to resemble bark. On top of the 18-inch tree stump for her mother, Janice Sadler, who died on Jan. 1, 2009, will be a watering can to symbolize her nurturing of the family.

A rifle will be leaning against the stump for her father, Harley Sadler, who continues to work as a truck driver today, to represent his providing for the family and his love of hunting.

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It is the best kind of person who takes inspiration from adversity.

When Lee Soucie was laid off from his job with ONG Industries, he decided to start on a project that he’d been waiting years to do: welding a full-size Tin Man, with heart.

Playing Tin Man with heart

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 10:08 PM EST
By SCOTT WHIPPLE
Staff writer

BERLIN — No one would ever confuse Berlin with the Emerald City or 7-year-old Alyssa Watrous for Judy Garland’s character, Dorothy Gale in the classic film, Wizard of Oz.

Then, too, neither Watrous nor her 4-year-old sister, Kirsten have a dog named Toto.

However, what 52-year-old Lower Lane resident Lee Soucie has done with six feet of tubing is more than pure fantasy.

Nothing against the Scarecrow or the Cowardly Lion, but Soucie, a welder with time on his hands, says as a kid he loved this most-watched movie in history. His favorite character was the guy who needed a heart — the Tin Woodman.

“My granddaughters, Alyssa and Kirsten — their mouths dropped open — when they saw what I’d done,” he says.

What Soucie did was a metal sculpture. He says for five years he had wanted to make a welding of the Tin Man.

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All I can say is, it’s about time!

It’s about time somebody put up a statue in honor of the working women of WWII, and it’s high time I find out about it (it’s only been nearly a decade)!

Now, if we could just get some of the other states to follow suit…

Tinker statue commemorates working women

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City)
Apr 3, 2000 by Bill May The Journal Record

When Elizabeth Ward decided to apply for a job at Tinker Air Force Base, it was no precedent-shattering event.

“I just walked in and got my job,” she said. “It was because of women like her, that it was that way.”

The “her” she referred to was Frankie Collier, 73, who went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Plant, now building 3001 at Tinker, the day she turned 18 in August 1944.

As an inspection clerk, Collier didn’t handle the wrenches, tools and rivet guns that gave the name “Rosie the Riveter” to a whole generation of women who took over defense manufacturing jobs to free a equal number of men to fight World War II.

“I worked there until the end of the war, then they just let us go,” she said. “There was nothing done about it, nothing said. They just told us to go home, the war was over.”

In the 55 ensuring years, Collier — like so many of her generation — got married, raised a family and continued with a teaching career.

One thing was missing, though. There was no memorial, no statue, nothing to commemorate the tough work these women tackled during the nation’s dark days.

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I’ve heard of method actors delving deeply into a part, but method welders?  Could be!  While Joseph Jilbert was welding his latest sculpture, a 16 foot tall crawfish, he ate and studied the crustacean for two weeks straight as preparation!

Boiled, fried or welded

By Jeff Moore • For the Daily World • January 3, 2010

When roving artist Joseph Jilbert landed in the Crawfish Capital of the World, he found an obvious subject for his larger-than-life sculptures.

Jilbert recently unveiled the product of that inspiration —
a 16-foot crawfish made of recycled scrap metal.

Dubbed Le Clarkii, for the crawfish’s scientific name, Procambrus Clarkii, the towering decapod is currently on display at Louisiana Purchases in Breaux Bridge.

Jilbert said the underbelly of the crawfish was made from old tractor parts, while the shell is made of parts from an old sugar-cane factory. The sculpture weighs in at a hefty 4,500 pounds.

“It’s more intense than any sculpture I’ve ever done,” said Jilbert, who ate and studied crawfish for two weeks straight while creating the sculpture. “I’ve gained a lot of respect for crawfish.”

Jilbert plans to eventually sell the crawfish and has several potential buyers lined up.

His next creation? A 45-foot version of the piece to be displayed at the Breaux Bridge exit of Interstate 10.

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In college, if you major in English, you get to write a paper.  A drama major will act in a play.  And a welding major?

Well, he might just get to weld an elephant…

Sculpted elephant shows tradesman’s artistic flair

By Kristi O’Harran
Herald Columnist

The circus is coming to Camano Island.

Well, not the whole ring and tent, just a fanciful retired elephant.

James R. Shields III, who grew up on the island, fabricated the pachyderm at Everett Community College.

She’s a beauty — in metal.

“Elly started with a three-way, 4-inch pipe fitting that looked like the beginnings of a trunk, and grew into a partial head when the body showed up,” Shields said.

The body is a working air compressor tank from the 1940s that was bound for the college scrap pile.

From there, pipe fittings made the legs, thanks, Shields said, to Rick Brydges, who teaches pipefitting. Fittings were also welded to make the legs and trunk.

The spine and tail are fashioned from rebar.

“I got to use 350 pounds of scrap welding wire, and spent more than 200 hours, to make Elly,” he said. “She will be on display at Freedom Park at Terry’s Corner on Camano Island.”

Elly has bright eyes, tusks and a trumpeting trunk on a wrinkled body that truly looks like elephant hide.

Children can climb aboard when they go on safari.

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Three women at Butler Community College are working hard to dispel three myths – firstly, that women can’t be welders (obviously not), second, that welding isn’t as viable a tool as other art mediums, and thirdly, that there isn’t help out there for victims of abuse.

All untrue, and they’ve been able to make their stance abundantly clear through this one particular sculpture.

Women weld hope for those of domestic violence

Last Update: 10/21 6:20 pm
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BUTLER COUNTY, Kansas – Mary Coleman, Jessica Davis and Blake Rebholz – together they are helping dispel the notion that welding is a man’s job.

“When I first enrolled in the program I thought I was going to be the only woman,” Coleman said. “So it kind of scared me a little bit, but I was still going to go for it.”

It has been nearly eight years since any women enrolled in the program at Butler Community College – let alone three.

When El Dorado’s police chief heard about the trio, he contacted their instructor, Matthew Galbraith, to see if the ladies would consider working on a project to mark October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

“To let woman know that they have other options,” said Rebholz. “Like us, going into welding.”

So for the last few weeks, they’ve been working on a sculpture with a simple message that in another week or so will be permanently placed in front of the El Dorado Police Department.

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The Crucible.  It’s not just a play by Arthur Miller –

The Crucible is an organization based out of Oakland, Ca that that trains people in the industrial and fine arts.

Ever wanted to learn how to weld?  Come to the Crucible.  How about blacksmithing?  Fire eating?  Enameling?  They’ve thought of everything!

My favorite is the Build Your Own Barbecue (BYOB) class.  You get to weld your own monster BBQ out of old scrap metal!

So, whilst I’m planning my move up to to Oakland (just kidding — although…), you too can get to know the Crucible with this video taken of a few of their welding instructors doing their thing at the Bay Area’s Maker Faire.

Here at Arc-Zone.com, we love to hear about people recycling their old scrap metal – saving the environment, doing some welding, and most of all – making art!  In Silver City, New Mexico, Stuart Engal of Custom Steelworks is recycling old lightposts.  With a little ingenuity, they are going to become a brand new welcome arch spanning the entrance of Silver City’s historic downtown center.

New gateway to visit visitors to downtown Silver City

By Christine Steele Sun-News Bureau Chief

Posted: 07/31/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

A local business owner is helping to create a custom-designed archway that will span Broadway and welcome visitors to historic downtown Silver City as part of a long-awaited Silver City MainStreet program.

Tommy Johnson, of Custom Steelworks, 202 Bullard St., welds steel plates joining four recycled Silver City lamp posts... (Sun-News photo by Christine Steele)

Custom Steelworks, 202 S. Bullard St., a local metal fabrication business owned by Stuart Egnal, is fabricating the nearly 20-foot columns that will support a steel sign that will say “Downtown Silver City.”

The Downtown Gateway Arch will be installed on Broadway, on the east end of the bridge near Hudson Street. The project is estimated to cost $100,000, including in-kind   and donated services and materials.

Egnal and employee Tommy Johnson have been working for several weeks on the project, welding together four steel columns that had previously been downtown lightposts. The lightposts date back to 1949. The city had been stockpiling them to use in the project, Egnal said.

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