Meet Celeste Flores | Artist Blacksmith

We had the good fortune of connecting with Celeste Flores and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Celeste, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My first intention was not to start my own business but to be an independent artist. I went to school for fine art sculpture. I worked almost full time when I went to college and always had the intention of decreasing my work hours and making a living off of my sculpture instead.

I knew that making a living from art was difficult and rare. I was working at an industrial arts school in Oakland called The Crucible. While I was there I met a woman named Carla Hall who was doing large architectural works, gates and railings for clients. She was a blacksmith and metal fabricator creating beautiful creative works of art for client’s homes. Honestly, from my past experiences I had no idea that I could do something like that. Not that I couldn’t do the work but that as a woman I could be accepted and taken seriously. (I had some bad previous experiences trying to work in male dominated fields.) Her work was beautiful and I believed I could create beautiful, creative functional metalwork as well. So I set out to learn to make a railing. And that was the start of it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I create functional metalwork for homes. Most of my work is bronze or steel sculpted into beautiful organic shapes in the form of railings, gates, lighting and tables.

I started by doing commissions for friends and family. I supplemented my income by teaching blacksmithing at The Crucible. I grew my audience primarily through word of mouth. My first major client relationship began when I began creating custom curtain rods for a lighting and design company in Berkeley. She had some clients who need metalwork in their homes and my reputation and portfolio grew.

Though I was proud of the metalwork I was creating, and had good relationships with my clients, making ends meet continued to be difficult. I live on a very low income for someone in the CA Bay Area. And I took on a lot of debt building up my shop.

Last year I felt like I couldn’t continue my current trajectory. I was loosing money and spending too much time bidding, driving around the bay and taking any job I could get. I needed the money, so I bid to get the next job to pay the next bill.

I took my decade of experience teaching and decided I would offer high quality, project based blacksmithing classes out of my shop in Richmond. It turned my business around. It gave me continued cash flow so I didn’t run out money between delivering the big projects. It paid my own personal bills without needing a huge investment in materials.

Now I can bid on jobs I want to do. I can bid what I need to complete a job, instead of bidding out of fear of not getting the commission.

For years and years I tried to have it all. I tried to put all of my art and experimentations into the commissions. I wish I had worked harder at establishing a baseline income. I have learned a lot from my struggles. But I think the challenge of creation is struggle enough. By working on ambitious projects that were actually outside of my client’s budgets, I gave myself years of excessively long work work weeks and financial difficulties. When what I think I needed more than anything was consistency and freedom to experiment on my own projects.

I am happy that I can use my shop to help other people fulfill their own blacksmithing goals. I am creating the kind of work that I want. And I am mentoring other young smiths to help them create the kind of artistic life that they desire. It’s possible with consistent dedication and deliberate planning.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I was definitely take them to my shop located in Seaport Studios. There are always very cool projects being created there. from 25ft tall fire breathing dragons, to kinetic art and public installations. I would show them the bay trail nearby and teach them a little blacksmithing at my shop. It’s always a fun and a unique experience.

I love nature, so we would first travel south to Santa Cruz. We would walk amongst the redwoods and then take a stroll on the beach.
Then we could head to Monterey. I love staying at Casa Munras and enjoying tapas and drinks at Esteban, their restaurant inspired by Spanish and California cuisine. After spending the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium we would head north of San Francisco.

We would take in the view at Stetson Beach before hiking through the redwoods of Mount Tam. The next day we would walk through the huge arching Cyprus groves of Point Reyes and stay at a charming inn nearby. We would order dozens of their oysters at dinner and indulge in local treats from their small town market.

Next we head to Glen Ellen. Glen Ellen has great wine and culture. It is like Napa or Sonoma with local crowds and a relaxed atmosphere. We can do a wine tasting at Eric Ross and Valley of the Moon Winery. We will eat Nepalese cuisine for lunch and dine at the Fig Cafe in the evening. We will stay the night in the cozy Glen Ellen cottages.

Then we head north to Calistoga. Since this is a dream vacation I would definitely want to spend some time in their natural hot springs and take advantage of their many spas. We would stroll down their main street and buy books and clothes and unique gifts from their many shops. We would finish the trip at their stunning natural wonder, The Petrified Forest.

The next day we would take a leisurely drive back home through St Helena and Yountville. Stopping to see the gift shops and taste the award winning cuisine. A casual end to a heavenly week.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have been supported in so many ways by an amazing community of people. I could never have created this without the patience and help of my husband who not only understood me working extra long days and weekends, but helped with everything from deliveries to digging holes to fixing my equipment. Chris Niemer used to head the blacksmithing department at The Crucible. He was my mentor for a decade and not only taught me most of what I know but showed up to make sure I didn’t fail with any of my ambitious commissions.

And there are too many people to thank other than that. Michael Suwczinsky has shown up whenever I needed the help. He stayed until 1am on a cold December evening to help me finish a railing. Then he returned at 7am the next day to finish the job. Meb Bryne, Avery Lockwood and many more have given me so much in terms of time and effort to help me to succeed. I taught them some in return, but it doesn’t compare to the time they have given me.

And of course my Mom. She gave me my drive to work hard and succeed and always has helped me when I needed it.

Website: https://www.clayandsteel.com

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