About
Bay Area metal worker for residential, commercial, artistic design, restoration and custom design.
About Fusion Metal Designs
Fusion Metal Designs was an easy business to get off the ground because the concept was simple. Build a space that allows anyone access to have something created that is truly personal.
At Fusion Metal Designs, metal is the dominant material used most because it can be manipulated in so many beautiful ways. And as our company name suggests, we love using a wide variety of other materials, to allow fusion of natural materials including wood, glass, stone, etc. Many times, we will leave materials unfinished allowing mother nature to add her part of the story. I have enjoyed many years of metal working, fabricating, prototyping, woodcraft, and sculpting. It has served me by nurturing my creativity while refining my ability to extract the details from your memories and bring them to life. The result of partnering with Fusion Metal Designs will allow you to break free from the frustrating limits of "what's available" and share my passion by asking "what's possible."
Meet Brian
After 20+ years of metalworking, and fabrication across a myriad of small business owner shops, huge manufacturing shops, military contract shops. I found my why… the passion behind the drive. I easily thrived in the creative space very early on, learning by standing on the shoulders of giants. I am constantly seeking those who came before me, all while teaching anyone the skills I’ve gathered along the way.
Origin Story
The very first job I took in the manufacturing world caused me to think I had made a big mistake. I was 18, infallible, and my Camaro needed more than my cashier's position at Service Merchandise could provide. I convince myself that a longer commute, slightly better pay, would justify quitting my comfortable job hopefully open a new opportunity to learn new skills?
After orientation and safety training, I was assigned to a station, given a file and a stack metal strips that needed to be deburred before the next process. It was not complicated, and I figured that what the newbies do the first week while all new-hire paperwork was being processed. Fast forward six weeks to me sitting in the same seat, behind an endless supply of thin, sharp stainless-steel parts for eight hours a day, five days a week. So, during lunch and scheduled breaks, I would roam the plant one department at a time for some type of relief from what was obviously not the dream job I expected. I would latch onto anyone who would answer a rookie’s question about the equipment they were using.
One afternoon I found my way to the weld shop, where I was excited to find a willing "shop super" who crammed a dusty welding hood on my head and gave me a five a minute intro to tig welding. "That's the pedal, this is the torch and there’s the filler rod. Never look at the arc without this helmet and don't fuck anything up!" He would check in every few minutes, drop some knowledge about my technique and give me a few more pieces of metal from the scrap bin. Every chance I had after that, I was "hood down" in the weld shop, emptying my head of crazy ideas as I practiced with any scrap, I could get my hands on.
In order to fast track my learning curve, I started showing up an hour earlier than my scheduled shift and would not leave until they powered down the plant for the night. I eventually got noticed by the right people and was invited to join the weld shop permanently and sponsor my a.w.s. certifications. At one point about two years later I decided to put some credentials behind my experience and enrolled in classes at College of San Mateo which had the top welding program in the Bay Area at the time.
The next two years were a blur as classes and full-time work leaving little time for anything other than weld, study, sleep, and eat if I was lucky. I completed my courses at CSM, had worked my way up to assistant shop super, and moved closer to the plant. To this day… the shop super and I are friends who still share our scrap builds and new techniques we've discovered. I will always have a scrap bin at my shop, I will always teach what I know, and my vision is to offer you Fusion Metal Designs, and my skills so you can enjoy what you love.