Meet Erin Berman | Patina Artist/Business Owner

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

Hi Erin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was working at a fine art foundry at the time. I realized that the art foundry industry was very male dominant and chauvinistic. Women had only a certain place in the hierarchy of the foundry and got paid way less than the male counterparts. I had enough talent to start working for myself, so I did. My mom was dying of cancer at the time. I had to find some way to work part time and take care of her. Going in to business for myself made it so I could earn enough to live on doing part time work so I could be a nursemaid the rest of the time. My business has grown to much more over the years, mostly by word of mouth.

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 have a degree in sculpture with my emphasis in bronze casting. The head of the sculpture department when I was going to Long Beach State University was Ron Young, owner of Sculpt Nouveau Chemicals and my mentor. I had a knack for seeing colors with the chemicals and started learning about patination on bronze sculptures at that time. I wanted to work at a foundry after college, thinking with my skills at pouring metal from college could help me land a job. I faced sexism and discrimination while trying to find a job. Women didn’t do the casting of the metal for these companies, they just worked in the office or other low paying, low skill jobs.

Ron Young got me an apprenticeship at a fine art bronze foundry and I continued my patina learning at Decker Studios Inc. I was paid less though, because I was a woman and the owner of that foundry yelled a lot and was verbally abusive. I had the skills at that point to work independently on my own as a patina artist. I was scared to work for myself, without security or benefits, but when my mom was dying of cancer and I had to take care of her, I had no choice but to try and go it my own to take care of her.

That was the birth of Fyrebringer Studios in 2006 as a DBA and I was in business as an independent patina artist. It hasn’t been an easy road. The 2007 stock crisis hit the art scene hard and I branched out to doing patina on architectural metals for high end houses to diversify and ride out the crisis. In 2013, I had my son and took off time for maternity leave. I lost half my clientele to other foundries and had to build my business back up from scratch. I had two employees until 2018. I got stiffed by a huge client in 2018 and had a major health crisis and almost had to fold my company once again. I sent my apprentices off to other foundries and started my business over once again. In 2019 I incorporated and officially became Fyrebringer Studios, Inc. I had high hopes for my future growth but the pandemic took the wind out of my sails. I persevered, working with a business coach, defining what my company stands for and how we want to impact the community. My business stands for Art, Education and Empowerment. I love to hire women and other artists who struggle to fit in to mainstream business jobs. In 2021 I hired my current assistant and started training her in patinas. We have plans for her to go to school and learn welding and other metal fabrication skills.

I think the thing I have most learned over my career are to never give up and to stand up to machismo and sexist behaviors while promoting skills for under privileged people. I have learned to over come adversity and to never give up on what you are passionate about. I love bringing beauty into this world in the form of beautifully colored sculptures. My company also does maintenance and restoration on public artwork and for private collections. We are a mobile business that can go anywhere on the west coast.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There’s so much to do and see in the city! I live in Pasadena and I love going hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains behind my house. Millard Falls is one of my family’s favorite 3 mile hike.

I’m a huge fan of sushi so we would have to visit Little Tokyo for some shopping and eating. My favorite sushi place in all of LA is Hama Sushi on 2nd St. downtown. The fish is always so fresh it melts in your mouth!

Now if your down for a nice whiskey joint, There’s a place downtown called Seven Grand. It’s on 7th and Grand and has the most adorable interior of plaid decorations and old wood that makes you feel right at home and relaxed as you try any of their brands of whiskey or scotch.

I have three favorite museums in LA although all of them are pretty stellar. I love the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. They have a beautiful outdoor sculpture garden and a great modernist collection of art. I also like the Getty Villa in Malibu. It’s a historical reproduction of a roman villa including archival copies of early 1900s sculpture and art. And last but not least, LACMA, the LA county Museum of Art. They have an amazing antiquities collection, a beautiful gallery for Japanese artwork and a great modern art collection. It was at LACMA that I first fell in love with the idea of sculpting. I have always loved Henry Matisse for his painting and collage work but at LACMA I saw some of his sculpture and fell in love with the idea that artists could do both 2 and 3-Dimensional art.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Ron Young at Sculpt Nouveau Chemicals.

He was the head of the sculpture/foundry program at Long Beach State when I did my Undergraduate work. He taught me patinas in college and helped me get a start in the fine art foundry business. He had a vested interest in my progress and career and it was his encouragement and belief in me that allowed me to take the risk of working for myself.

Website: www.fyrebringer.com; www.metalartla.com

Instagram: Fyrebringer_Studios

Linkedin: Fyrebringer Studios/Erin Berman

Facebook: Fyrebringer Studios

Image Credits
Fyrebringer Studios.