As I was about to start my large bison sculpture this year, I was informed by my landlord that I was not going to be able to weld in my work shop anymore. That was a blow. I tried to set up next to my chicken coop at home with a generator. That did not fly. 90+ degree heat, super dry grass, and the welder does not like the generator.
My good friend,Tom, at, Sore Elbow Forge, in Bozeman, MT, stepped in and allowed me to set up in his parking lot.
Almost twenty years ago I walked into Tom's shop and asked if I could rent a small corner in order to do a moose sculpture. He let me in and I created a life sized moose for a client in, Vermont, and my sculpture career in, Montana, took off. People saw me working and the commissions kept coming. Tom calls me, Moosey. Tom is the best.
So after great expense and much time I managed to get all my equipment and materials moved to Tom's parking lot. The first day I went in to start welding - the power went out on his entire building. I thought the universe must be messing with me. For two weeks we struggled to get him back into business and to get things running. More time lost. Finally he rescued his business and smithy. I got to start to jam out on the Bison.
I did manage to build him and Tom, Kaia and I had an epic day getting him loaded onto the trailer.
I did finish before the first big snow, but as my husband,Patrick, and I were about to leave Bozeman for Big Sky, the road conditions were so bad that we thought of our four kids and backed the bison back up into the parking lot of our brewery and there he stands. I failed my promise of delivery before snow. Gut shot - I don't deal with failure well. Hopefully my clients will be ok with waiting until summer. If they are not, I now have a giant awesome bison in my inventory!
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