We recently connected with Brian Knoche and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I hope someday to be able to focus more on my and my kids creativity and grow our business to be able to life off of it.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to make this my full-time job. Art is something someone does not feel is a necessity in their life. Trying to sell online is not going great for me at this point. The internet is so large, and you get maybe 15 seconds to catch someone’s attention. I have been working on getting ready to attend art fairs in person. This is the best way I have success selling items. Getting exposure is key to catching someone’s eye. I feel there are people that love what we do but maybe they have not come across us yet. Another large hurdle is material costs when creating art, you have so much in materials and tools into creating one item. Its hard to make a living off it. I hope someday I will have an opportunity to set up a display and have orders for the custom items we make. There are so many items out there that are mass produced maybe people are ok with having the same item as your neighbor we try and create items you have not seem before or will come across till someone else recreates our art. Trying to create a business from scratch is hard work you work harder longer for less. Somedays you wonder if it is worth it. My goal is to inspire my children show them that a little hard work can be rewarding. If I can get them to do something we enjoy and spend time with them, I will be one happy father.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started BKustom wood and metal works in my garage during the COVID shut down with my children. I wanted to help challenge them during the tough time being stuck at home working off computers remotely. We enjoy just following what our mind comes up with one min we could be working on a flag then move over to start welding on a new metal dragon or bee designs, we love brightening up your home or garden. My mother is a seamstress and has inspired my creativity. My father has always encouraged my ideas and thoughts throughout my life. This is something I hope to pass on to my children as they grow. I have the best wife in the world she has never told me no even when I told her I wanted to start my own business. For the last 20 years i have been an electrician and Project manager. That job can be very demanding but the wood and metal art gives me an outlet when I get home to decompress. I have been fortunate to meet some awesome people over my years on this beautiful planet. I just hope they all feel the same way about me after I meet them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I had made my Father a giant 4’x6′ American flag with rail road spikes for fathers day. As a shipped this north i had someone see it and ask if i could make them one my the next weekend for there grad opening of there air B and B in Hatfield Wisconsin the Loon lodge Hatfield Jeff and Debbie Elliott build this beautiful Lodge out of an old roller skate rink. It is a very special place and I have a custom piece of art I was able to contribute for its customers to enjoy for years. I was able to complete the flag and have it up on there wall the following Friday for their grad opening!

When working with wood or metal you don’t get a second chance. We have all heard measure twice cut once before. Well, when creating you don’t always get the chance to measure even once. The items we make there are no instructions for. When building an epoxy end gran table, I had issues along the way. Yes, there are videos to watch to learn what others have had problems with. When doing the work on nights and weekends I don’t always take the time to watch them. They tell you to do a first pour with the epoxy to help items stay in place and avoid bubbles. Well, I mixed too much epoxy and had to either make the full pour or loose the $60 in epoxy. 5 mins after the pour the wood pieces started to float. Now I was stuck with how I hold down the 15 individual small pieces of wood while the epoxy sets up. After multiple tries to get them to stay put, I had to act fast I cut up a bunch of small pieces of scrap wood placed on each table pieces and put a large sheet of plywood on top with 80lbs of iron. After I had set the weight down, I had time to think and look, well I could not see the table at that point. So, all I could do was make sure the mold was level and wait a day for the epoxy to set up enough to remove the plywood to inspect the pour. After a day I removed the top and was amazed my idea had worked. With a little be of extra sanding I was able to save the table and it turned out amazing. Photo attached.

I have another story about not having time to simply let glue to dry. I was sanding to close to super glue and ended up with 8 stitches on my palm from a 120-grit palm sander the following day after the glue set up on the sandpaper and I did not know. It created a knife end that went through leather gloves that sent me to the ER late on a Sunday night.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding thing has to be talking with people as they view our art. It is so awesome to talk with them about the piece and tell them a little story they can take home with the art. Life is hard we don’t need to make it harder for our self’s or family members. I have the best support group I would not change for anything in the world. I just hope to inspire someone that might be scared to come out and show there craft and shine!

The most rewarding aspect of the creativity is listening to people comment on your art. I am my worse critic I am hard on myself. If I pop a screw all the way through a piece, I redo the complete project. I guess you call it a perfectionist. I don’t know if that is the right word for it because nothing is perfect in my eyes when it comes to art. The perfection is in the way others view your work. This is something I try to teach to my kids or anyone that I talk with about projects. You will always be the hardest person criticizing your work. Knowing others place your art inside their house, garden, or their special places to admire and share the story about the pieces is very rewarding. I take my creativity for granted most days. I hope someday to be able to share my store on a larger stage, maybe it will create opportunity to make it my full time profession or maybe it will just allow me the opportunity to talk with someone about a piece of art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bkustomwoodmetalworks.com
• Instagram: bkustom_woodworking
• Facebook: BKustom Woodworking
• Twitter: @BrianKnoche2

Image Credits
The photos are all owned by myself.