Color their world

How does an artist go from making handcrafted, one-of-a-kind works to production for wholesale without losing his artistic touch and integrity?

Streamline the process, enlist some help and don t forget to include time for experimenting and brainstorming is John Rose s approach.

Rose, 50, crafts an array of items, including jewelry and Christmas ornaments, from copper and finishes them with the fiery touch of a torch, bringing out a rainbow of colors.

He and his wife, Kim, 41, of Whitefish created their business, RoseworksMT, to sell his creations. Buyers from 150 companies across the country such as gift stores (including some in Glacier National Park), museums and galleries order thousands of items from the Roses each year.

The couple started the business four years ago. At that time, they primarily sold Rose s wares at farmers markets. The business evolved to selling at crafts shows within and without Montana. During the past two years, it s become a wholesale venture.

Wholesale is nice, because everything you build is already sold, Rose says.

Rose attended almost 40 shows a year and says deciding what kind of pieces would sell at any given show always was a gamble.

Now he and his wife are enjoying the proximity to each other that his working in Whitefish allows, though they each put in at least 70 hours of work a week.

They realized the other benefits of going to wholesale, such as having items made for orders rather than guessing what might sell at a show. But the couple had to figure out how to maintain Rose s unique touch on each of the pieces.

When he started the business, Rose created individual pieces almost on a whim.

But with wholesale, buyers want hundreds of the same item. The Roses could hire workers or buy machines to do what John does, but that takes away from the idea of the artist creating the works, the couple say.

Part of their compromise was creating a list of designs from which buyers could choose, rather than creating each order anew.

It s hard balancing the hand-crafted with production, Rose says.

He drew templates so shapes and sizes would be uniform. Now, Rose s work space a garage he rents in a residential Whitefish neighborhood is neatly lined with rows of boxes that hold his copper cutouts. Bears, trees, flowers, whales and horses are ready to be used as Christmas ornaments or jewelry.

Rather than doping every piece himself, he s hired several apprentices to help with some steps, leaving him time to handle the more artistic part of the process.

Apprentices trace the templates onto 26-gauge copper sheets, then cut them out using tools called aviation snips. They also hammer the cutouts to smooth the sharp edges and give the pieces a textured look and dimension so they aren t just flat.

Rose also has created tools, such as hammers that work well for specific shapes, that let him and his apprentices shuffle pieces through production faster than using traditional tools. He loves figuring out the most efficient way to do things, whether that means new tools or a different process, he says.

When the pieces are cut and hammered, Rose goes solo. He puts his signature touch bright, almost luminous colors on the copper works.

A quick meeting with a blowtorch does the trick, but it s not as easy as it looks. All he ll say is that he s mastered manipulating the heat or torch to make the colors pop in a way that is unique to each piece.

That s what keeps me interested. I could do a hundred of these flowers, he says, holding up a decorative flower he s just colored, and they d all be different.

Rose then finishes the pieces, polishing them and grinding down the edges to give them copper-colored borders to contrast with the vibrant hues. He adds special touches, such as metal squiggle accents, to some pieces.

He averages about 500 pieces a week. They range in retail prices from $6 for a bookmark to $400 for a large grizzly bear wall hanging

The couple moved to Whitefish from Spokane four years ago so that Kim could help her parents, Tom and Carol Krustangel, operate their Montana Tom s business when her mother had cancer. She left a job in administration for a technical training company.

Rose, though, had trouble finding a job in his field of heavy equipment fabrication. He d long been an artist and occasionally sold some of his metal sculptures while they lived in Spokane, but art wasn t a career, though he would have liked it to be.

About 12 years ago, he started thinking that he d like to make a living from his art. But that didn t occur until they moved to Montana.

When in Whitefish, Rose made a decorative copper piece to hang on their fence. Rose started selling them at a local farmers market, and the business grew from there.

His wife juggled working for Montana Tom s and their firm until 18 months ago, when she devoted herself to RoseworksMT full time.

The artist and his wife banter when they talk about the business beginnings and success of selling thousands of pieces each year. He gives her credit for encouraging him to make art a career, and she praises his talent.

She got me to do this, he says.

She wouldn t have anything to sell and promote to buyers if he didn t make such beautiful copper works, Rose counters.

Kim handles (or cracks the whip of, as her husband jokes) the business side of RoseworksMT. She handles orders, packages all the pieces and reminds Rose what orders need to be completed when.

We have disagreements, Rose says. But we agree that if it s on the art side, it s his decision. And if it s on the administration side, it s mine.

The couple acknowledge that Rose is the more business-minded of the two and that John sometimes needs to be kept on track when it comes to what order is pending, but they say they both realize he needs time for artistic play.

That might mean a short break to craft a unique design, such as a piece of jewelry, that isn t in the template roster. It might take only a few minutes every now and then, but it does much to stimulate his creativity and keep him interested in the work, he says.

Their move to wholesale means they sell Rose s works for 50 percent less than the retail price. But streamlined production and the help of apprentices means they re able to make a comfortable living, they say, though they decline to mention a figure.

It s not primarily about the money, the couple say. They just want a business that lets them work together and be their own bosses, and one that fulfills his dream of making a living through art.

I just want to make more things, he says, smiling, so I can sell them so that I can make more things.

For more information, call 862-3317 or go to www.roseworksmt.com.