MADE IN SB
Pan-tastic Forging for the Future
By Jeff Miller
P
icture three brothers running a blacksmith shop in downtown Santa Barbara. What do you see? Fire? Sparks? Bearded guys pounding red-hot molten steel while heavy metal music booms from the speakers? If so, you got it. That’s Santa Barbara Forge. That’s where you’ll find the Patterson brothers and their crew hard at work on everything from railings to doors to chandeliers to tables and cookware. The brothers are Dan, 43; Joel, 40; and Andy, 38. Their shop is on Gutierrez in Santa Barbara’s downtown industrial zone, but you can see their work all over town, from the signs at the Museum of Natural History to the exterior lamps at MOXI and beyond. Far beyond. Much of their business comes from their web-
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FOOD + HOME
site www.sbforge.com), which is a serious creation in itself. There you can learn the difference between cast iron and forged steel. (Cast iron involves pouring molten metal into molds. Forged steel involves bending and hammering red-hot metal into shape.) And the process is beautiful to witness. On their YouTube channel you can watch Andy making that sign hardware for the museum. By the end you might want to become a blacksmith too. How do three 21st century brothers get into such an 18th century business? Like smithing itself, it was quite a process. It started with Dan, who was interested in taking some drawing classes at college (Hope College, Holland, MI) but they were full so he
took sculpture instead. Turned out to be “one of those great little accidents that turn the course of your life,” he said. He further followed that course pursing his master of fine art degree at Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany, and then started thinking about “how to commodify” what he’d learned. After several moves (LA, New York City) and jobs (cabinet maker, rock drummer), he finally settled on Carpinteria and metalwork. “There are so many cabinet makers out there, and way fewer metal workers,” he said. “Plus it’s a huge part of the aesthetic here.” So he got some tools, including a roofing torch, and built a forge out of an empty propane tank, lined it with brick, and went to work. “It was very, very slow,” he recalled. “I knew a designer who was kind enough to give W W W. F O O D – H O M E . C O M
