Silver lining

Photo: Deborah Dekoff // Park City Photography.

In the 1983 film Flashdance, Alex Owens is a welder at a steel mill by day and dancer at a bar by night. No one is more surprised that a woman could thrive in a male-dominated field than her own boss.

Fast forward to reality. By day, Stacy Sherr runs a mobile welding service and drives a welding truck filled with tools needed to repair iron railings, gates and more. By night, she creates beautiful jewelry and sculptures and fabricates detailed metal work for homes.

“Everyone calls me a badass, because I am,” says Stacy. “People see me welding and ask if I’m afraid of getting burned. The answer is no. My happy place is under the welding hood in front of a molten puddle. It helps me take my mind off everything else that’s going on.” 

Stacy was always artistic and loved to create. She grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida. One year, her Mom went on a ski trip and fell in love with ski towns. That was that. They moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado when she was 5 years old. After high school, she worked as a Danish exchange student and traveled across Europe before returning to the states and enrolling in art school in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was in the desert that she discovered her passion for metal working. She graduated with a BFA, moved to San Francisco, took a silversmith class and began crafting jewelry. In fact, she took to it so naturally, for years she made a living as a jewelry artist in New Orleans.

“I was living in NOLA, pre-Katrina and pregnant,” she says. “I wanted to come out West to raise my son Beau. My mom was living in Vernal and so I rented a miner’s shack in Park City and sold jewelry at Terzian Gallery and Phoenix Gallery. My son and I were part of the first Park Silly Sunday Market. Beau soldered coins and made more money than I did sometimes.” She made exclusive lines of jewelry for No Name Saloon and Back 40 and also had a jewelry show at the Kimball Art Center in 2014, titled “The Art of the Timepiece” sponsored by O.C. Tanner. After 8 years in Park City, they moved to Heber where they lived for 12 years before moving back to Park City.

“I do a little bit of everything,” she says. “So, every day is different.” Her range includes making light posts, teaching children how to weld horseshoes at Northfield Stables, welding original Alta ski chairlifts back together, creating commissioned sculptures, and more. “I’m working on an 18-foot handrail with decorative accents and sculpting and fabricating solid antler ends for curtain rods. I don’t do just one thing. I also do repairs, like weld a gate or an axle back on. I’m moving into a future with steel fabricating and designing art and sculpture.” 

Stacy thrives by honing her craft. “Since I’ve become a welder, the men in my community have been so encouraging, they invite me to come to weld with them. Mike Bronn, owner of Park City Iron Man and his lead welder, Tierney Vaughan, help with heavy lifting and measuring and they have been wonderful to help me become an independent welder,” she says. “I’m in my 50s, so when someone asks for a handrail or a floating staircase, I call Mike. There’s just only so much I can do physically.”

That wasn’t always the case. She joined the Ironworkers Union in Salt Lake 3 years ago. “That’s when I really felt the man’s world,” she says. “It was challenging and I was never given the opportunity to weld the way I wanted to. I realized I would never be appreciated so I moved away.” But that one experience pales in comparison to the outpouring of support she’s received from her community.

 “My mentor, Judy Summers, is a local artist legend,” she says. “I have helped her make jewelry, sculptures, and modeling for her private classes. Judy is still sculpting even though she is blind now. She has been my voice of reason and inspiration.”  

Just 2 years ago, her son Beau died. “He was my whole world. He was just 22,” she says. “Someone smoked crystal meth with my baby in a McDonalds parking lot and it was on. He struggled with drug addiction for 8 years. I was naïve, I thought living in Heber was so safe. Drugs are here and it’s scary. The fentanyl epidemic destroyed my beautiful boy.” 

Metalwork has helped her process the profound grief. “The welding community is amazing here,” she says. “So many people have supported me by encouraging me to make jewelry. They recognize me as an artist. Some people order entire collections.” For now, she’s working on a large commissioned sculpture for a private home. 

“Welding has taken my time and helped me forge a new path forward that includes creating art sculpture,” she says. “It is helping me heal through the great loss of my son.” And although that loss cracked her into multiple pieces, her eye for detail and meticulous approach to craft keep her welding beautiful things. Like the element she works with, she embodies strength and resilience. 

Want to see more?

Her jewelry is available at the Show Pony

295 E Main St, Midway, showponymidway.com

Find her on Instagram @sesjewels

Email her at sesjewels936@gmail.com