Iowa Welder Tanner King Turns Farm Roots Into Striking Public Art

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Tanner: When I was 12 years old, we built that first motorcycle. That was our first welding project together with both of us.

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Nebbe: Tanner King is a welder in Auburn, working out of the same shop his grandfather once ran. It's where he first learned the trade, turning time spent with his grandpa into a lifelong skill. 1955 is when he bought Martin's Welding for $9,000, started working on farm equipment.

2012, I believe, is when we built the first palm tree, and then it kind of started after that with all the art stuff.

Nebbe: Every piece presents a new challenge.

There's no instruction manual for shaping metal into lifelike forms. Just experience, experimentation, and a willingness to learn as you go.

You can't just google how to make a copper frog.

Nobody does that, you know?

So you gotta -- you gotta figure it out yourself.

This is a 100% copper bullfrog that we are making for the Sac City Public Library.

What I'm doing right now is, uh, like, oxyacetylene welding, or brazing.

I've never worked with copper before, so... a little bit of a learning curve there.

This thing started out as a full sheet of 14-gauge pure copper.

It'll be pretty cool when it's all done.

Then when it tarnishes, the copper, it'll all turn green, so it'll be a pretty cool frog.

♪♪ So it's for the city of Sac City, and they basically sent us a flat picture like this.

And it's going to be a 15-foot tall, 15-foot wide tree out of about half-inch-thick sheet metal.

Tanner hired me to do a lot of the designing.

I have a background designing T-shirts and other stuff, but also in metal fabrication.

My dad was a metal fabricator his whole life, so I grew up watching him and kind of did it on my own on the side.

Nebbe: What starts as a flat sheet of metal often becomes something much bigger.

This work is designed to last.

The sculptures turn into landmarks, gathering places, and quiet points of pride for the communities they become a part of.

♪♪ Pawletzki: I love to be creative, and I like to see just an idea turn into a finished product and know that I helped make that.

Stuff that'll stay there for a long time, like these trees on top of the hill.

I live north of town, so I get to drive by those every day on the way to work and the way from work.

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