Ashley Odd, metal fabricator, stands in his Roadhouse Kustom Metals workshop and gazes at a formidable slab of steel that he will have to bend into the shape of a client’s signature. It will be a difficult job.
“I take on jobs that are hard, that others don’t want to do,” he says. “I want to do them the most.”
Odd just completed a challenging piece when he built the new aluminum gate for the Gibsons Marina that was unveiled on Sept. 11. In that case the challenge was the timeline. He had only six weeks to complete the metal structure and didn’t get much sleep until it was finished.
The other challenge was finding the aluminum. Odd is dedicated to environmental friendliness and uses recycled materials. Recycled steel is easier to find, he notes, though stainless steel is not; aluminum is even scarcer and must be bought.
He made the new gate from his own design after an idea that came from the Marina management for an image to do with sea life. Food Chain of the Ocean features whales, seals, fish and waving kelp, all surrounding a gate to the dock. Currently he is working on a bench for the same location, possibly made from a crab trap. He was referred to the Marina job by another metalworker who had been impressed by Odd’s wine cellar doors displayed at the Home and Garden Show. The doors are covered in cracked shutters so that a lighted display of wine bottles can be glimpsed through them. Though the shutters look like wood, they are made entirely of steel. Odd stalks the recycling yards and online sellers to find his materials.
“I don’t need to have someone smelt more ore for me,” he says. His slogan is proudly written on the door to his Field Road workshop: “Committed to incorporate alternative, recycled or recyclable materials into our designs.”
Another current project is a five-metre table made of hot rolled steel for a restaurant in Port Coquitlam. The hot rolling process bleeds impurities out of the metal and gives it the bluish techno-industrial look the interior designer wants.
Odd and his wife are new to the Coast after living in Calgary and Vancouver. He has always enjoyed doing metalwork since school days, though his career took a successful detour into sport. In the past he has won five titles in kickboxing and holds the year 2000 world title. These days he sees himself as a fabricator; the artistry comes in the original designs when he lets his imagination go wild.
For more info see: www.rhkustommetals.com
