It’s no secret how hot it can get in Louisiana. In an environment so unforgiving to the cold-natured, the last profession one would think to pursue is working with torch and steel in a boiling workshop every day.
Artist Nathan Logsdon doesn’t let the heat get to him, even when he’s busy building intricate scrollwork and welding large metal sculptures. His artistic fabrication company, The Metalsmith, has existed in Baton Rouge for 13 years. Logsdon has been working with metal for 22 years, having an interest in fabrication since a young age.
“The first time I saw a red-hot piece of steel when I was eight, I was like, ‘OK I want to do that,’” Logsdon said.
Before learning the ins and outs of metal work, Logsdon worked for a knife manufacturer. He later earned an art degree from Eastern Illinois University. Since graduating, Logsdon has filled his days with torches, steel and plenty of hammering.
Logsdon moved to Louisiana in 1999, hoping to make a living in metal work in New Orleans. Between New Orleans’ cost of living and other moving factors, he decided to stay in Baton Rouge with a local iron worker, building his own pieces in his apartment.
The works Logsdon created on his own time were his step into the professional world as an independent metalsmith. Soon, Logsdon discovered the money made from his own work was more than his employment.
Upon first opening The Metalsmith, Logsdon balanced a workload of contracted construction work and art fabrication. Following the 2008 recession, Logsdon figured it would be smarter to keep art as his main production, seeing as it got him the response he initially sought.
An education in jewelry design, combined with works from the Art Nouveau movement, are what shaped Logsdon’s work and style sensibilities. His appreciation of craftsmanship and industrial shaping manifest themselves in his work as scrollwork, sharp angles and ornate molding.
“I didn’t know how to weld at all when I first moved here,” Logsdon said. “It was a learning process. That’s the key tie-in to the Art Nouveau movement — just the extreme craftsmanship.”
With 22 years under his belt, Logsdon prides himself on the speed of his fabrication and his ability to cut down production costs. This reputation comes from his ability to form shapes without heating the metal, instead using force and leverage.
The demand in Baton Rouge for metal work lies strongly in the need for contracted metalsmiths, Logsdon said. However, in recent years, he said he’s seen a sizeable shift in the city’s attitude toward art. When compared to the substantial presence of nearby New Orleans, Logsdon said he sees the ability to make and sell art in Baton Rouge, especially metal work, as a challenge.
“In the last two and a half, three years, the emphasis on art in this town has drastically changed,” Logsdon said. “Art has always been a difficult sell. Craft is easy to sell for the most part. When dealing with the scale of the pieces I’m working with, it’s really difficult to … sell at a price where people will actually bite.”
Logsdon has worked to remedy this pricing issue with the construction of his own Computerized Numerical Control cutting machine. The machine uses computer programming to cut out special designs out of metal, which Logsdon uses in his work. By building his own machine, Logsdon saved roughly $14,000.
University engineering department research specialist and machinist Nicholas Dinecola worked for nearly seven years with Logsdon while studying art, concentrating on metalsmithing and jewelry.
Through a friend, then employed by Logsdon, Dinecola found work fabricating, grinding and other jobs at The Metalsmith. Dinecola said he enjoyed working with Logsdon, whose work is what initially attracted him to the job.
Dinecola shares Logsdon’s view of metal work in Baton Rouge’s art circles, noting that it is present, but only slightly.
“He was very talented,” Dinecola said. “[He had] good designs. We got along. I think [metal work] is growing. I don’t think it has a huge presence right now, but I think it’s definitely growing. You’re starting to see more stuff pop up here and there. I think art in general is growing in Baton Rouge.”
The long hours, hands-on work and potentially dangerous environment are not enough to deter Logsdon from coming into work every day. He is currently working on getting his piece and name known in the public eye.
By building more sculpture pieces and refining his technique, Logsdon hopes to forge a future in Baton Rouge’s art scene as a premier local talent in metal working.
“The mystique that clients convey to me is about the torch work…the hammer work,” Logsdon said. “It’s that age-old blacksmith mystique. You have to know an awful lot about an awful lot of things … to be able to do this and do it well.”
You can reach Gerald Ducote on Twitter @geraldducoteTDR.
Nathan Logsdon, owner of The Metalsmith, uses a machine of his own creation to make metal sheets with designs.
