Today we’d like to introduce you to David Simonds.
Hi David, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My journey here in texas started 8 yrs ago when I moved to austin with a backpack and a dream that just maybe austin Texas would except me for me . I struggled for many years to stay sober due to a rough childhood riddled with trauma and bad decisions. When I finally had enough I had an opportunity to jump in a random car with someone off Facebook and landed here in austin . Over then next 6 years I worked for several great metal fabrication shops and art studios that helped me unlock a new passion for a trade I thought I had already done everything in . Ive been in the field for going on 23 yrs but was only in this for the money I made doing it .So after 5-6 yrs working for other people I decided it was finally time to bet on myself for once and take a huge risk for my family by opening my own art studio . It’s been a struggle to say the least trying to juggle all my crazy ideas in my head . All while trying to help as many people I can doing what I love to do . It all started with one family after the flood and it snowballed into getting to help several more in the process to the point I pick up a new life path being a search and rescue scuba diver to help the families of those still missing . So today I do a lot of juggling being a Father to my two beautiful little boys , a parent to an amazing woman , a Bronze blacksmith and now a rescue scuba diver . I absolutely wouldn’t trade the path my life has taken me for the world and hope that people enjoy my art so that way I can continue to use the profits to feed my family and build sculptures for people to honor loved ones who tragically passed away without notice or people who need to raise funds to fight medical conditions. My goal would be to be able to one day give back to the community that made this all possible . So hopefully I may show my kids it doesn’t matter where you came from if you try your best to help others for no other reason but to help .
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest struggle has 100% is the balance between helping and over inserting my help when it’s not wanted . This world we live in today is full of all different types of people . So some times we need to understand that not all help is needed . So today I’m just trying to focus less on how to find people to help and let the story’s find me . I couldn’t tell you how much your life would change just by taking 5 mins and talking to someone and asking them how you can them today . Today we all seem to allow everything going on in the world to cloud our vision so much that saying hello to random strangers seems illegal. Like with most people who have hear my story peoples first reaction is usually how are you here and why do you continue to help people with what you have been through. My answer is always the same because in order to see change you have to be the change you wanna see . So I’m just going to continue that till I can’t lift a hammer .
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in realistic bronze sculptures made with a hammer and anvil . I have tools dating back to the early 1800’s and prolly about 40 different anvils. I also have about 60 hammers of all sizes to go along with them . I pride myself in building things from nature that has no rhyme or reason for why it looks the way it looks . A perfectly imperfect thing that’s was created by god himself . I like to take items that most people would consider junk or useless and turn them into something most people can’t understand how it was built or why something would spend that amount of time creating something that already exists. They only major difference between me and most people is just how I construct everything by hand with no A.I , computers or cnc cutters .. everything is drawn with a maker and cut by hand then shaped by hand . It then gets welded out and most of the time welds are also blended out with a hammer to hide the fact it was ever welded in the first place . I just try and do my best to build everything how nature created it by hand like they did hundreds of years ago .
What’s next?
My plan for the future is to be able to get some land in the hill country to be closer to the river I’m still helping search so I can build a big enough shop to teach the youth blacksmithing . I want to be able to run classes on how to take simple items in the world and re imagine them out of metal so kids don’t lose their imagination. This world is so full of electronics and AI that we are getting farther away from making anything ourselves anymore . I wanna be able to create art for people that deserve it and that will pass it down to their kids kids . I wanna go back to making heirlooms for family’s instead of junk that just gets broken and thrown away .
Contact Info:
- Instagram: 13_thirteen_studios
- Facebook: 13thirteenstudiosllc
