Seattle
is a fascinating city and even though I’ve lived here for twenty six years I still
feel as though I’ve barely scratched the surface.
 |
| A South Hill still life |
Earlier
this week I went in search of a substantial steel “T” section for a massive
pine countertop that I’m making for the third store in my friend Bianca’s chain
of Jujubeet juice bars. You can’t
just go to Home Depot and steel and so I had to some digging, but eventually I
found myself navigating the maddening dead ends and gravel roads of the
industrial area known as South Park in search of Seidelhuber Iron and Bronze Works (this place has been in business for 108 years- one of Seattle's continuously running businesses).
I
was a little nervous entering a diamond plated door on which a handwritten sign
read “beware yard dog on duty” but once inside the cluttered office filled with
equipment from the seventies I met Heidi and she put me at ease. I described what I needed and she led me out
to the yard to find what I wanted amid well-organized racks of angle, square
tube, channel and T sections. I quickly
found what I was looking for, Heidi said “how about twenty bucks,” as easy as
that I had what I was looking for.
A
major aspect of making stuff is knowing where to get the raw materials. When it comes to metal, I now know where to
go.
