Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel David. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve learned a lot from trying stuff that I dreamed about. I had some basic making skills. I have made stuff since I was a kid. I learned to weld. I worked hard. I took a class then I tried more stuff. I have tried every method I’ve seen someone use Some techniques work and I continue to use them, and some did not work for me though they seem cool, and some were spectacular failures. I haven’t had a specifically focused time for studying my craft. It is my life practice though.

I have been in the right place at the right time so many times to be inundated with ideas and potentials. I feel like I’m constantly learning and I always wish I could learn more faster. Every time, everything feels like the first time. Sometimes I joke that my own insecurity and nervousness is part of my process, but its also a significant factor contributing to how I’ve learned. Its had me think about and re-imagine systems over and over to ensure i do the right thing for each project.

I’ve never been in a situation I could just learn, I always had to make a living too. This field has a lot of opportunities for people to pay to learn and learn by “apprenticeship” but not necessarily get paid for the work. I never had a supportive parent or partner to financially shoulder any experience like that. I also have lived in the Deep South, New Orleans for most of my adult life, wages just didn’t cover much outside of the essentials. At least mine didn’t. I couldn’t afford to take an unpaid and expensive time out until I was fairly advanced in my practice.

I think knowing what I know now, my wiser side would say that I should give myself more grace, but I think most of me would tell myself to get over the hurts and snubs and buck up, it’s a man’s world im not welcome there. I should step away from that, make my own decisions and do me and help mine. I swear by the motto of 20 minutes to be butt hurt for each rejection then move on up. Use it like a ladder and get better. I have learned a lot that way. Bazillion rejections later, I have gotten pretty good.. When I was just starting, my examples were such a part of that toxic masc world. It didn’t register that there was another option.

Maybe there wasn’t another option then, but now there is and I like to think I had something to do with it… I got into metalwork before the internet made connecting much easier. 2003-4. It was very hard to find people to connect to and feel safe. I think if I could have found the right mentor who could hire me and pay me, I would have been able to sky rocket. If I could have found a community earlier I would have gotten better much faster.

In 2017 I worked with 2 other metalworkers, Lisa Geertsen and Anne Bujold, to co-found the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths. I think if we had existed in 2007 or 1997 it would have made a huge difference for me regarding finding a mentor and like minded makers. We work to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the blacksmithing community. We higlihted the issues and are working to create spaces and with organizations to create opportunities.

The only grad program, at the time that attending school seemed like an option, was all male students and the professor seemed distinctly uninterested in me. I knew I didn’t, and don’t do well in all male spaces so I decided grad school wasn’t for me. I learned a lot by doing craft shows since they are an opportunity to create a body of work to fill a booth and explore my style while making money. Several programs around the country seemed so cool but I couldn’t figure out how to afford to live. It seemed like most people had other income or support that I didn’t have. capitalism is such a bore

In terms of essential skills, every skill for any project you can imagine is essential. Everything is different so each project is an amazing opportunity to either get better and learn more or be complacent in your practice.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a metalworker. I specialize in finely forged work that is also fabricated and machined when appropriate. Using many metals to create contrast, and occasionally other materials including cement, cork, wood, textiles, and glass, I make furniture, sculpture and architectural accent elements . I work with clients who love my style and have a project they want to work with me on. I also sell unique objects made for sale at art shows and through galleries. I have a singular style and focus intently on creating the finest work I possibly can. I am proud that my work is very noteable and recently completed a commission for a donor bench for the Smithsonian American Art Museums Renwick Gallery.
Clients typically come to me with a fully visioned project, or a vague scope of work that they want, or even some even vaguer idea then we drill into what they want. I also welcome working with architects and interior designers to create really specialized spaces. I think people are most satisfied by my services when they expect something they never thought could be done and they get a beautiful and functional object.
I am a kind of activist alongside my artistic practice. I am very proud to have co-founded the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths. It has been a lot of work for a long time but we’ve done some good creating space for more diversity, inclusivity and equity in the field of blacksmithing. I think our most notable successes are our mentorship program and the litany of grants we give. I wouldn’t classify any of my mentees as clients but im very proud of their personal successes and feel grateful when they call to catch up. I always wish I had someone I felt so free to rely on.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love to make stuff. I love the whole process. I love to draw, I do it most days. I love to think about shapes and processes. I love to work backwards from the drawing to figure out how to make a shape. I love to transition from the dreamer to the technician and figure out processes and learn new techniques and make tools to make the dreams. I love to bring people into the “secret” that it’s really just practice. I love to share and contribute to my community with my skills and help make fun and silly things happen. I have gotten pretty good at something that is specialized and useful and I can help people deal with problems they come across. I love that being this type of creative will enable me to be a good member of the apocalypse team.

This is a lifelong practice though and I get better in fits and spurts of revelations and practices and failures. I’ll never be as good as I want to be. I can never do everything, though for most of my life I have. Probably why I always live (and thrive) in chaos.

I have the most involved and intimate relationship with my practice. I have gone through deaths and heartbreaks laying on the floor weeping and my work always has picked me back up. In each hour of each project I can experience complete chaos and ego dissolution and supreme confidence. It is my longest love, besides my family.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I have a haphazard and chaotic relationship to management and and distinctly avoid entrepreneurship and as much responsibility as possible delegating those tasks as to people who are good at them. I try to stay in my room (the shop) and make work to pay for their diligence. My business philosophy mostly consists of trying to actively avoid my tendency to self sabotage. But i’ll answer about my art practice and how to justify making work for luxury as my job and work for me as my religion.

I read Molly Crabapple’s essay in Vice called Filthy Lucre. It must’ve been 2013 or 14 the first time I read it, but I re-read it from time to time. It was revelatory to be publicly supported by a stranger in feeling the insidiousness of capitalism in the arts world. She was and continues to be brilliant, gorgeous, and righteous in her art, journalism, and activism. Our efforts to get stable have some overlapping qualities but were very different, of course, everyone is different. I read her essay while I was working on a gallery show at “Barristers” gallery in New Orleans. I recently re-read it and this quote hit me again

A decade of practice honed my talent. But cash let me express it. To pretend otherwise is to spit in the face of every broke genius who can’t afford materials or time. It’s to say I got here because I’m better than them.
I am good. But it’s never just about that.
An artist, like an activist, is expected to financially hobble herself. Purity is as important as survival. There’s a constant criticism for earning “too much.” But as we slash the social safety net, once basic things—a home, college, a dignified old age—become mirages. It’s near impossible to live the average American dream on the average American salary.
I talked to the owner Andy Antipias about the essay for a longtime. We chain smoked and drank and talked in his study about selling out versus stability and making enough money to make meaningful work. I had done a show a few years before and struggled to just make the work, i didn’t have the money and it was so hard to work to make money and work to make the work for the show. I sold a lot of from that show. It was a euphoric experience. Preparing fo the next exhibit was so much easier. I could schedule the time, I could buy the materials I wanted and I could hire help. It was wonderful.

One of the nerdiest, but most transformative books was a turn of the book by JW Lillico. It really helped me visualize tthe way i wanted to make shapes. It also helped my feel supported that all of the operations i do are rooted in history and there are well founded ways to be successful.

Another really revelatory and relevant thing, not a book or essay but an exhibition I saw at the Baltimore museum of art called Work Ethic. The show was about art about work and it was such a wide interpretation. I am really glad to be thinking about these impactful references while I struggle to prepare for my first museum show.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.redmetal.net
• Instagram: @__redmetal__

Image Credits
Steve Mann, image 1 Loam marketing 2-6 Paul Kieu 7-8