Communities Connected....Stronger Together Chapter 17

Iron Man and his Art—New Business Takes Off

by Carolyn Parks-Mintz

 

Art comprises many media, from paint and plastic to marble and metal.  As Marshall McLuhan once said, “The medium is the message.”

 

Never was this more evident than in the artwork at Murals in Metal, located just outside Seaforth, Ontario.

 

Jim Dawe, artist in residence and owner of Murals in Metal, has always worked with heavy, lustrous substances but in a more functional way, as a sheet metal worker.

 

However, in his off hours, Dawe also loved to draw and sketch—fulfilling this artistic bent as time permitted.

 

Now those two disciplines have been melded.  Dawe turns sheet metal into art—beautiful pieces for indoors or outside.

 

The Murals in Metal showroom is a gallery for Dawe’s talent and creativity.  Its walls are adorned with wilderness, wildlife, horses, music, boats, ‘welcomes’ and with stylized trees growing from its floor.

 

Outside, garden screens and ornaments share space with brown bears, deer, evergreens, a 25-foot palm tree and a soon-to-be-displayed full size, roadside dinosaur—all gloriously metallic.

 

“I went into metal art fulltime about five years ago,” says Dawe, “operating out of my home shop.  It was sort of a hobby business.”

 

Attending The International Gift Show in Toronto three years ago proved to be a turning point for Dawe.

 

“We came away with 60 stores from Nova Scotia to BC wanting our product,” he reports with a wry smile.  “ But we couldn’t 

 

 

handle all that at the time and so narrowed it down to our local area.”

 

However, to keep up with demand, Jim and Lynn Dawe’s new Murals in Metal storefront and manufacturing plant opened on Hwy 8, just west of Seaforth earlier this year.  

 

As an added service, they also specialize in custom designed iron fences and gates. 

 

Basically, any item can be fabricated from metal.  Give Dawe the idea, the gist of your original piece and he’s able to design it and make it up.

 

“Customers pretty well let me run with it,” Dawe says.  “They trust my judgment after we do some preliminary sketches together.”

 

The transition from paper drawing to metal art is complex, involving computerization and a laser-type plasma cutter.

 

“The sketch is scanned into the computer,” states Dawe.  “It’s then quite a process to clean up the lines and determine where all the cuts should be.  But once that’s completed, the automated equipment takes over.  All this ensures quality results.”

 

Metal art can be painted or left to rust naturally.

 

“Many people like the earth tone of the rust pieces” reports Dawe.  “They work especially well in gardens but can be striking indoors too.”

 

Designs by Murals in Metal can be found in 40 area stores, as well as in community parks, such as the three in the Town of Mitchell.

 

The Toronto Botanical Centre is carrying their line, and when you enter Shakespeare, Ontario, a Murals in Metal sign welcomes you to Perth County.

 

Dawe’s family staff of three includes son Cory and two sons-in-law, Jordan and Mike, who are kept hopping, as their topline products get known and orders roll in.

 

“I need to train more staff,” says Dawe smiling.  “I’ve ordered a larger cutting machine to keep up with business.  And that’s a good thing.”

 

So for that one-of-a-kind gift or a decorative piece that has your personal mark on it, see Jim Dawe and his capable crew.  Metal never looked so good!

 

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