Patricia Chavez, originally from Tijuana, Mexico, moved to the Bay Area to attend college. She completed her BA in Psychology at UC Santa Cruz but soon realized that her true passion was with the arts. Initially gravitating to the world of music, she dabbled in the DJ scene and while you can still catch her spinning vinyl at John Colins in San Francisco every first Friday, Patricia spends most of her time in the studio expanding her metalsmithing skills.
 
Her deep-rooted appreciation for and fascination with metal work prompted her to take action and she began taking welding classes.  Soon she had her own equipment at home and began to refine her skills in both welding and blacksmithing.  She currently works as an Assistant Studio Manager at The Crucible in Oakland, California, where she also teaches MIG welding and Square Fabrication. 

The overall aesthetic of her work tends to be minimal in nature; she pays close attention to the execution of her work and enjoys the challenges and revelations of the fabrication process.  She has collaborated in the fabrication of large-scale art installations at Burning Man (Homouboros, aka The Monkeys) and has also done solo work for Burning Man sound camps such as Green Gorilla Lounge, creating their plasma cut metal camp sign as well as fabricating a dramatically light metal and plexiglass bar.  In addition, she also does freelance fabrication ranging from furniture to lamp design.
 
While working at The Crucible, Patricia’s curious nature soon found her learning fire eating, fire breathing, and rope darting. Now a proficient fire performer, Patricia not only teaches but also performs regularly and was recently was featured in the indie film “Daily Grind” and in a death metal video for Drummer from Hell.  She also fabricates her own performance tools such as custom blacksmithed fire eating/breathing torches.


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