2004 Year in Review

Swanson forms beauty from scrap metal

Steve with one of his many roses.

Steve Swanson’s fascination of blacksmithing and working with metal got him started making treasures out of pieces of metal. Steve’s specialty seems to be roses. Right now he makes three different sizes of roses. He has also made hummingbirds, trellises and old time dinner triangles. He has also made two rose bushes and is in the process of making a third. Each rose bush can weigh up to 95 pound.

Steve sold one of his rose bushes on EBay to an art gallery in Pennsylvania. He was informed from the art gallery that Julia Roberts had bought the rose bush from the gallery. According to Steve, “First I got an email from the gallery that stated Julia had bought the bush. I thought it was a joke or something, but then I received an email from Julia herself with a picture attached of the rose bush under glass at her home.”

To get all of the configurations of his roses correct he watched roses transform from a bud until their dieing stage. “I literally took roses apart piece by piece to see how they went together,” stated Steve.

Each rose is unique. Steve starts with just a piece of metal, cleans it to get the rust off or sometimes he leaves the rust for the authentic look of the metal. He then traces templates onto the metal, the first being a star shape and circles. The star forms the first layer of the rose which is the outer petals. They are the first to drop when the rose begins to die.

The circles are then cut to form five petals. Then through the processes of cutting, bending, chiseling and heating Steve’s pieces begin to take the form of a rose. “My imagination takes over in the bending process to form each unique petal,” Steve says.

Steve took some lessons in blacksmithing at the John Deere home in Grand Detour and has attended demonstrations all over the Midwest. He also attends blacksmithing conventions to obtain new ideas.

“A blacksmith’s philosophy is if you mess up you can always make something else,” according to Steve.

It takes him about 45 minutes to an hour to make the smaller roses. The bigger ones take longer because of having to use more heat and bending of the metal. “I could spend a week though on a rose bush just doing the stems, leaves and thorns,” he says.

“In days gone bye if blacksmiths didn’t have the tools they needed, they made their own. It took me almost four years to acquire all of my tools,” Steve said.

Steve sometimes adds special touches to his roses. He can make them blue by heating the rose until it is red and then dips it into transmission fluid instead of water to cool it like blacksmiths do. He also heats them until red and brushes them with a brass wire brush which melts into the hot metal to give his roses a brassy finish. To give his roses the genuine rose smell Steve says you can place about five drops of rose oil on it from the center out, bake it for one hour in a 350 degree oven and the smell will last three to six months.

Steve has brought his roses to different craft shows, taking 20 of them with him to each show and within four minutes was sold out.

Steve grew up in Prophetstown, graduated from Prophetstown High School and was enlisted in the U.S. Army for 13 ½ years where he specialized in diesel mechanics and fought during the Gulf War. Steve now works at American Products Company in Morrison as a production worker.

“A blacksmith thinks of other people’s junk as gold. Many things can be made from it, Steve stated.

If you would like to give someone a unique gift contact Steve at 815-772-4349 (leave a message) or email him at stevenswanson536@msn.com. Thecity1.com office has several of Steve’s roses on display.

For pictures see Photos

by Dawn Zuidema, theCity1.com
October 27, 2004