I am the rare Seattle native, entranced by steel in all its forms; dark gray mill scale, rusty mottled brown and bright shiny silver. Sparks flying and the feel of heat radiating off molten orange metal exhilarates and excites.
Working construction for 10 years I found myself fascinated by the welding sparks of ironworkers..they got all the fun. It was amazing to me that welding steel creates such a solid connection so quickly.

I am a “one woman show”. I am the artist and the fabricator and the teacher. I have a unique approach to teaching that draws in many students who have previously taken “beginning welding” from someone else. When asked why, they say….”it’s obvious you love what you do, your energy and teaching style did give a ‘gut’ level understanding of the process. Or, “we didn’t learn about the technical aspects or how the machine operates.” Students frequently comment that a one night welding class is fun, but not long enough. A second day let’s you put every thing you learned into practice after you have absorbed the info, cogitated over the experience and rested to approach it with renewed vigor and level of understanding. You do not need an entire school quarter of 3 months to learn.

I bought my first(born) welder secondhand on the job and started welding steel scraps together. I trained at South Seattle Community College during last year blacksmithing was offered, and have been teaching for 15 years now.

Steel really began on Sept 11 2001 while I was a commercial  industrial Electrician happy in my career for 10 years. I was wiring the “new” SeaTac Airport control tower when the 2 planes hit the World Trade Center. The Airport was immediately shut down and everyone sent home. Boeing took a hit, union jobs were suddenly scarce. I entered a state worker retraining program 3 months later and was able to study both welding and blacksmithing. Of course I fell in love with welding, I created and sold garden art while in school. I started teaching classes the next year and ever since.