Life & Work with Martin De Winter of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Martin De Winter

Hi Martin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in the province of Liège, Belgium. I attended a high school that was focused on the arts, and where I developed a love of painting. After graduating, I wanted to explore metallurgy, and went to trade school to learn welding. Then I subsequently took an apprenticeship at a fabrication workshop specialized in structural welding and architectural elements. Over the following 5 years I worked in several different shops, honing my welding skills. But it became clear that there was never going to be room for creative development in this section of the industry, which was disheartening as I really saw the craft as having such amazing potential for creative exploration. After about 2 years of working at this shop I decided to set metalwork aside entirely and enrolled in art school. After graduating I traveled for a few years, and worked all types of jobs. But It’s only when I moved to Los Angeles in 2013 be with my (now) wife, Margaux, that I reconnected with metal fabrication when one of the first jobs I got was a teaching gig at a community welding workshop called Molten Metalworks (now closed, sadly). It’s there, while teaching all types of welding, that I truly reconnected with the trade and realized the enormous creative potential it had. I met a bunch of amazing people and began to get inquiries from past students to take on small fabrication projects. Eventually I got so busy that I had to rent a small space of my own to keep up with the demand. The projects kept coming in and getting more exciting and complex so much so that about a year later we moved again into a larger shop and had to hire a couple fabricators. It’s around this time that I asked my wife to jump in and help develop the business and lead the charge on a brand identity. She’s been the driving force behind DMW and oversees all operations. It’s been amazing working together at shaping the business into what it is today. We’re really proud of what we’ve built so far and of our incredible team, which has now grown to 6 — and are the backbone of the company.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been an easy road, as this type of work is challenging both physically and mentally, and of course owning a business requires an enormous amount of work, but I have to say we have been lucky to grow organically which has made each transition pretty smooth. One of the big struggles I faced early on was dealing with an enormous amount of work alone and without any logistical oversight and general creative vision for what direction I wanted to take the business in. So when my wife jumped in and reshaped the business from the ground up, making it more efficient, we were able to grow in a way that is now allowing us to be very selective in what projects we choose to take on, focusing more on artistically driven and work on our own designs.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We do custom metal fabrication and specialize in the utilization of brass. We make everything from architectural elements such as shower enclosures and cabinetry to custom furniture and home accents. I think what makes us special is that we have really mastered the art of fabricating with brass, which is a very difficult material to weld and use in general. We also perfected the art of the patina, and are always excited to explore different applications. What we’re most proud of is our ability to execute very complex builds without ever compromising on the quality and attention to detail. I’m also really proud of what we have put place to make our customer/client experience smooth and enjoyable. Not a lot of metalwork shops out there have an apparatus in place to really project manage and take care of customers the way that we do.

Any big plans?
We’re currently working on our own line of furniture and home accents and are very excited to launch next year. This has been the dream for a long time and the direction we want the company to go in. The plan for the future is to take on a small amount of custom fabrication projects with the interior designers and architects we love to work with, and keep creating our own designs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dewintermetalworks.com
• Instagram: @dewintermetalworks

Image Credits
Kitchen image credit: @nilstimmvisuals
Fireplace image: @amberinteriors