PK: What did you do before?
Earlier I worked at the locksmith as a welder, so I already had experience working with metal. As a child, I always liked to carve in wood. Perhaps the idea of creating metal sculptures appeared in my head as a combination of these two interests.
PK: Is your education somehow related to working with metal?
No, I'm self-taught.
I worked in many different places and industries. I was a welder, I drove a forklift - I did various works. However, I've always liked sculpture. In my childhood I was surrounded in some way, because I come from Stryszawa - a village that is famous for carving in wood. People create wooden birds and other figurines there. As a child, I was very interested, but when I was a teenager, interest somehow disappeared. It only returned when I was 35 years old. That's when I started to create metal sculptures.
PK: What did the beginnings look like?
At the beginning, what I create as a scrapman was only an additional occupation. I still worked as a locksmith, I was employed as a subcontractor and I had a business, which allowed me to start selling my work immediately.
It was still something that I did "after hours". A big change took place about a year ago, because it was then that I quit my job and dealt with full -time metaloplasty.
A lot has changed since then. I feel that this job calms me down. In the past there was a lot of stress in me, and now I feel completely different. My wife claims that since I deal with it, I have become much calmer.
PK: Are there any skills that are necessary to deal with metaloplasty?
To deal with metaloplasty, you need to have manual skills, imagination and self -denial.
Imagination is particularly important to see shapes in everyday objects and invent what you can create from them. Seeing various elements, I wonder how to use them - for example, I used to look for a turbine because I wanted to make a snail, and the turbine has a shell -like shape. I do not draw my projects before, I do not create them on paper - I plan everything in my head.
So education is not necessary to do what you?
Determination and manual skills are more important. I know many people who do not cope with school, but have amazing manual and artistic skills.
I have mixed feelings about artistic education. I used to visit the gallery in Krakow's Kazimierz to ask if I could sell my work there. The only question I was asked was: "Are you after the Academy of Fine Arts?" When I replied not, I heard that I had no entry in that case. I think that people unnecessarily pay so much importance to the school.
PK: Would you like to tell us how step by step the process of creating such a sculpture looks like?
First of all, first I have to find the right materials.
PK: Do you get all the materials from scrap metal?
Yes, everything I use comes from recovery. I go to scrap metal and car mechanics who give me parts. Upcycling is the basis of my work. Sometimes I find materials in other places - recently I found half a mannequin under the trash, I made a plaster cast and created a bust of screws.
PK: Did you find some interesting or surprising items?
Yes, there were several such finds. For example, I brought a wooden box to the house, which I found under the trash. When I began to clean it, I got rid of paints and it turned out that it was a box in which during World War II Americans sent food to Poland.
I like such discoveries and I like to give old objects a new life.
PK: And what happens when you bring new materials to the studio?
I don't group them. Everything lies in one place and when I start work, I choose what can be useful. These are my "dump" - sooner or later everything will always be useful. At this stage I think about what and how I want to create. This is the most time -consuming stage, because I have to come up with a project, find the right elements and plan how to combine them.
PK: Do you prepare a design or initial sketches before you start work?
No, I don't make sketches. The vision of the final sculpture is simply slowly clarified in my head.
PK: You have been working with metaloplasty for over 5 years. Has something changed during this time?
Both my style and approach have changed. At the beginning my sculptures were smooth and refined - I polished them until they lost the nature of scrap. The breakthrough was the work, which I left more strict, looking like something found in the junkyard. Customers loved it.
Definitely within 5 years since I create sculptures, the impact of social media on the sale of craft objects also increased. For me personally, the last six months is a really big "boom" - I have a lot of customers right now.
PK: Who are your clients?
My sculptures mainly go to clients in Poland, but also to Austria, Germany and the United States. Most recipients are Poles living abroad. Currently, the majority of my clients come from Tiktok. According to statistics, this is a very wide audience, so it's hard for me to determine who my cut customer is exactly.
PK: How do you see the future of your profession?
I see her optimistically - I would like to do it as long as possible.
PK: What is the most difficult in your work? What challenges do you measure to create metal sculptures?
The most difficult project was a sculpture, whose half resembled a terminator and the other knight. Placing armor was a huge challenge - it's more blacksmith than welding.
The most difficult moments are those when customers press and want their orders "on now." This is not mass production - each sculpture is unique, even if it looks similar to the previous ones. Because I only use recycling elements, the process of creating a sculpture requires a lot of creativity. Customers do not always understand that even gathering all the right elements can sometimes last for several weeks.
PK: Do you have any advice that you would like to share with young creators?
So that they don't care and do what they love.
What is your biggest design dream?
My biggest dream is to create an installation for the Burning Man festival. I feel that I am ready for large sculptures and artistic installations.
The last question, why should you choose handicrafts?
Craft products are unique - every item is unique.
Each such product is one of a kind and unique. There will certainly be no other one.
