BlacksmitHER Radio

Episode #22 – Monica Coyne “An Off the Grid Blacksmith Shop?”

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Monica is an artist blacksmith who lives and works in California.  Working closely with a wide-range of clients, she produces exclusive, timeless pieces for the home, garden and business.  

What We Talked About

  • Monica’s first taste of blacksmithing started by answering an ad in the paper looking for an apprentice welder in her town of Ettersberg, CA for a gate fabrication shop at the spry age of 44!
  • She then sought out opportunities to learn and apprentice with experienced blacksmiths such as Toby Hickman, Mark Aspery and Daniel Miller.
  • Monica tells us how her husband built her forge shop from the ground up that is completely off the grid!
  • Her shop has a power hammer, 2 forges, 2 fly presses, oxy-propane set, a MIG welder, a Hossfeld bender and Bader grinder
  • Her business keeps her busy with mostly word of mouth advertising, making 5 to 7 pieces a year.
  • Monica shares her pricing strategies by estimating the time it takes to make a piece, the client’s budget, her hourly shop rate and the interest she has in making the piece.
  • A design fee that she usually charges is around $200.
  • As far as installations for Monica, legally in California if you are not a licensed contractor you can’t install anything that costs over $500 onto a home.
  • The “On the Bias” table made by Monica started with a drawing first, wanting to introduce the more intricate connections of the mortise and tenon’s on the corner of square stock.  The table took 6 months to finish!
  • We talk about her website and how it was built on Squarespace (which is around $14/mo).  The pictures of her work on her website, www.monicacoyneartistblacksmith.com have been a mix of herself, a professional and her brother.
  • One of her favorite tools is a hammer made by Jim Austin where the face of the hammer has forge welded high carbon steel on it and the center of the hammer’s head is wrought iron!

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    Monica Coyne’s Links:

    Website – http://www.monicacoyneartistblacksmith.com/  

     

    Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MonicaCoyneArtistBlacksmith  

     

    A Big Thank You to today’s sponsor – Pratt Fine Arts Center

     

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