Metal Relic: Welding, Business, and Building a Life in Steel
Hey everyone, my name is Jeremy Werkheiser and I’m the owner and artist behind Metal Relic.
Metal Relic started in 2017 as a night and weekend side gig. At the time, it was a way for me to take welding, fabrication, salvaged steel, and industrial materials and turn them into something more creative. What started with smaller handmade metal pieces slowly grew into guitars, motorcycles, flowers, wall pieces, machines, creatures, and eventually larger sculptural work.
My background is in industrial maintenance and management, so I have always approached my work from both the hands-on trade side and the problem-solving side. Nuts, bolts, washers, chain, sheet steel, pipe, tools, scrap, and raw steel all become part of the work. I like taking hard industrial materials and pushing them into organic forms while still letting the steel look like steel.
A lot changed for me over the last few years. After a house fire, losing tools, losing my father, and having life pretty much force a reset, my perspective shifted. Metal Relic became more than just making things. It became a way to rebuild, refocus, and prove that skilled trades can become fine art when you keep pushing the craft.
That shift eventually led me back to school for welding, where I treated the education side seriously. I wanted to sharpen the skills behind the art, not just rely on what I already knew. That path led into SkillsUSA, competition work, project documentation, galleries, exhibitions, media features, and national and international recognition for my sculpture work. My piece The Deep Sleep, a steel Kraken attacking a pirate ship, became a major turning point for me and helped show what Metal Relic could become.
On the business side, Metal Relic has grown from a side project into a full-time small business. That has meant learning a lot beyond welding: pricing, shipping, customer communication, inventory, event planning, online sales, marketing, photography, branding, and figuring out how to balance smaller production work with larger custom and fine art pieces. Some days the business side is harder than the fabrication side, but it is all part of building something real.
I’m not here to make a sales post. I wanted to introduce myself, share some of the history behind Metal Relic, and show the work that came out of that journey. Everything I make is built by hand, one piece at a time, with the goal of turning raw steel into something that feels alive.
Glad to be here and looking forward to connecting with everyone. If anyone has questions about my process, the education side, the business side, or the journey from side gig to full-time work, feel free to ask me anything.
Jeremy Werkheiser
Metal Relic