Nicholas Burke’s award-winning designs, forged of steel and crafted of wood, go far beyond his small hometown of McLeansboro.
As the owner of Carbon Forge Design, Burke designs and fabricates custom signs, firepits, tables, shelves and functional art. His love of metalwork began at an early age when his father owned a welding shop.
“I was always there, but the work was more about fixing things and reinforcing them,” Burke recalls.
When Burke was about 15, he and his dad took a blacksmithing class at Jefferson County Historical Museum and Village in Mount Vernon.
“This class gave me a better understanding of not just cutting metal into shapes, but also manipulating it,” he says.
As a young adult, he worked in other welding shops and steel frame construction, experiences that also added to his knowledge. While earning a degree in integrated marketing communications at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Burke served as the design chief at the school newspaper, The Daily Egyptian. After graduating, he worked in advertising and marketing, which included designing logos for the National Hot Rod Association and NASCAR while dabbling in fabrication as a hobby on the side.
Sparking a Profession
A chance encounter gave Burke the confidence to quit his marketing job and concentrate on building Carbon Forge Design into a full-time business. A friend of Burke’s sister visited his shop and praised Burke’s work, particularly the firepits. The friend purchased one for a Florida-based craft brewery, but perhaps more importantly, the man encouraged Burke to rethink his business plan.
Burke began to understand that his hobbyist mindset, where he’d put so many hours into a project while earning less than minimum wage for his efforts, cheapened his craft.
Where to Buy
Carbon Forge Design has an office and retail space open by appointment only at 400 S. Marshall Ave., McLeansboro.
Website: carbonforgedesign.com
Email: carbonforgedesign@gmail.com
Exhibit information: cedarhurst.org
“I was kind of scared to call myself a professional,” Burke recalls. “It was just something I enjoyed doing, but fabricating and designing with steel wasn’t my job. My sister’s friend really pushed me to call myself a professional at what I do, boosting my confidence to take it forward and do well with it.”
He’s done just that. The prestigious Cedarhurst Art & Craft Fair, a Mount Vernon-based juried festival celebrating original, American-made arts and crafts, accepted his work. First exhibiting at Cedarhurst in 2020, Burke won Best in Show in 2021.
At the Cedarhurst Fair, Burke typically has firepits and steel garden plants, such as succulents, for sale, along with charcuterie boards he often crafts from black walnut.
Although no two items are the same, Burke likes to incorporate the spongelike appearance of morel mushrooms in his charcuterie board designs. Burke loves morels and has foraged for them his entire life. He’s even embedded real mushrooms in the corner of some of his boards.
In May 2023, he’ll mount his first solo art show at the Shrode Art Center at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts. He also recently completed the custom design and installation of a new sign for the Cedarhurst grounds.
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Modern Technology, Ancient Artform
For a project like the Cedarhurst sign, Burke creates renderings of his design with computer software, then makes a 3D model for the client.
“Everything is pretty nailed down before I start cutting steel and welding,” Burke notes.
The firepits, Burke’s favorite item to make, are different. He sometimes sketches his designs in chalk directly on the sphere. However, most often he cuts freehand.
“I enjoy the free-form of plasma cutting by hand,” Burke says of the torch, which cuts using an accelerated jet of hot plasma.
These processes illustrate Burke’s use of both centuries-old and modern technologies. The human practice of heating metal and hammering it goes back thousands of years. Working on construction sites and in other metal shops, Burke gained exposure to various tools and practices, from power hammers that date back to the late 1800s to hand hammers “as old as time.” He says each experience taught him different techniques and safe methods. However, his mentors had the most impact.
“In our small area, I’ve had different people who were very encouraging in taking up the trade of metalwork,” Burke says of McLeansboro, population 2,675. “As these people have passed away and I’ve been able to inherit some of their tools, it makes me appreciate having knowledge of these techniques even more. I’m very proud to be the caretaker of these tools, to keep them ready for the next person.”
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Hometown Proud
Shipping that first out-of-state sale to the Florida brewery made Burke realize he could grow a business in his beloved hometown and not have to move to a larger city.
“I love being in this area of blue-collar workers who are willing to show people how to do different things,” he says.
Although Burke says he enjoys making beautiful tables, firepits and signs, he acknowledges it’s unglamorous, hot, sweaty work dealing with fire and power tools.
“It’s hard to be at the bench and think, ‘Oh, I’m an artist,’ when it feels like I’m a welder,” Burke explains.
Welding or fabricating yields metalwork that will last a long time if properly maintained, he notes.
“It’s a beautiful thing for me to make something that will be around longer than I will,” Burke says.
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