Shaping A Vision From The Wonder Of Metal

Most people start a business because they know something about it.

Not Steve Humphrey.

In 1988, he opened a shop making ornamental furniture and other steel items, though he knew little about metalworking.

He figured he'd learn on the job.

And he has.

Humphrey's company, 47 Productions, which he runs with his wife, Charlotte, expects to top the $1 million mark in sales this year. It has 15 employees.

That's impressive, but more so given that they disrupted the business by moving, in late 1990, from New Orleans, where metalwork is a tradition, to Seattle, where it wasn't.

The Humphreys opened a fabrication plant and display room in the old Cornwall Lumber yard near University Village. People drove by, stopped and began buying. Sales that first year in Seattle were $60,000.

The early works were simple, reflecting Steve Humphrey's developing skills. Now he's selling elaborate gates, lamps, tables, chairs and other works, whose style may be whimsical or formal, but always unique.

Prices vary by individual designs and reflect the amount of labor that goes into each piece. Based on a sampling in the showroom, a chandelier costs $850, a fireplace screen, $1,400; a bench, $1,400; a chair with casters, $650; and a mahogany desk with metal frame, $2,700.

His clients include executive Stuart Sloan and "Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson, along with restaurants such as Palisade in Seattle and Spazzo's in Bellevue.

Steve designs the works, based on customers' ideas, while others do the fabricating. Charlotte handles the finish work.

Just as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates preaches the vision of personal computing and McCaw Chairman Craig McCaw promotes cellular telephones, Steve Humphrey preaches his own vision - the wonder of metal.

The basics of metalwork have been unchanged for hundreds of years.

By heating and twisting a piece of metal, says Humphrey, all sorts of delightful things will emerge: a piece of jewelry, an ornate gate or the foundation of a skyscraper.

Most people think of steel as tough and unyielding. But heated and rolled, it can be as flexible as a piece of string, he says.

"To me it's far more versatile than clay or glass or any other medium," says Humphrey, who was trained in ceramics and sculpture at the Universities of Washington and Wisconsin. "The possibilities are endless."

The limits are the imagination.

Humphrey points to a book on the Spanish artist Antoni Gaudi, whose ironwork could be as delicate as lace. Gaudi was determined to stretch people's understanding of design. Humphrey carries on that tradition.

He takes an idea and brings it to the company's blacksmiths. Some of the ideas are unconventional. If the blacksmiths tell him an idea can't be done, he won't take no easily. He'll just work harder on finding a technique that will bend the metal to his vision.

Humphrey says demand for metalworks is growing, but not as a result of a sudden interest in the craft. There's always been interest in Europe and Southeast United States, he says, noting metal goes well with various interior styles.

But now, more decorators are using metal and, in Seattle, more people are taking an interest.

Humphrey sees his business growing, but he says money and size aren't his primary motivators.

His goal is to simply make better pieces year after year.

There is no straightforward explanation why Humphrey chose the name 47 Productions. As a ceramic artist, he signed his works with a "47" because he likes the number. The two numbers, he says, have a nice balance when placed side by side, but that doesn't explain it all.

"It was my favorite number growing up," says the Seattle native. "Why? I don't know. Maybe it was growing up in the 47th latitude."