Hello everyone, my name is Rebecca Weythman and I am a local Wenatchee Valley metal artist. Fun fact (that my kids love), my roots go back to the founding families of Cashmere and Monitor. Perhaps, you have toured our family's humble little cabin, found at the Cashmere museum.
I know a woman welder is a bit of a novelty but here I am. I got hooked on welding when I went back to school in 2010.💓💓💓 I went back to school to increase my skill set interior design and landscape architecture, along with taking some business and accounting classes. I quickly came to my senses and made a mental note to hire business and accounting people and I'd stick with the creative side of the business, lol.
Well, one of the classes I took was a 3D modeling class, where you had your choice of working with any medium you wanted.
Well, from as far back as I can remember, I have always had an artistic/crafty bent and have worked with most mediums, except for metal.
So, you guessed it, I choose to work with metal/welding. When I aced that class, I was hooked, I wanted more, to learn more about welding. So, I proceeded to take all the welding classes WVC had to offer. I received the one year welding certification, I am certified in two processes, and I was the first female to complete the welding course at WVC. I finished up my 10 years journey at WVC with several degrees and certifications. Yes, I know 10 years seams like a long time but I have a unique learning style as I have dyslexia, so it takes me a bit longer to finish up academic stuff.
During my time at WVC, I designed and created my largest sculpture to date "Pressures of change" for a juried student art show, and of course it was selected for the show. Once the show was over my art instructor said that I could leave it at the art department until I was finished with school. This was in 2018 and then in 2020 when covid hit and as I was finishing up my last class, I scrambled to find a place for my sculpture. I contacted the board at Pybus Public Market and they said they'd love to have it. It was to be on display for 6 months and after that I'd have to find a new home for it but about 3 weeks after installing it at Pybus an anonymous person bought it and donated it to Pybus. From this connection with Pybus through my sculpture I started selling my other metal art at the Artisan Fairs held once a month outside at Pybus. Fast forward to February of 2021, I made the exciting and scary leap to go full time creating and selling my one of kind metal art pieces.
I strive to use as much recycled metal and other materials in my art pieces as I can find, giving new life to things once discarded. I love to step back as people look over my art and listen to them discovering/realizing all the parts that I have used in my art and to see the smile it brings to their face.
I not only creat my own art but I also do custom orders, if you can think it, there's a very good chance I can bring it to life.
So, my first love is creating my metal art but my second love is to teach other's weld while creating their own art. One day I will have my own space where I cal live, create, teach, and show case my art.
