Magnificent Metal

Alexandria, a 7-foot tall angelic metal sculpture, greets guests to the rustic home and studio of Pittsboro metalworks artist Tamera Mulanix. Designed with a mermaid-like body with slender wings, the deity is the centerpiece of a yard and home filled with unique artwork.

Large wings accented with 150 metal feathers hang near the home’s front door. A tall bare metal tree stands ready for cold weather while a giant spring metal daisy rises up from the ground. Smaller metal pieces, like bird baths and yard stakes, also dot the yard.

Detailed mirrors, high-back chairs, decorative side tables and tall candlesticks fill the home’s living room. Her signature piece, a 36-inch mandala with nine points, accents the wall above the fireplace.

 
For Mulanix, the metalwork is an artistic passion discovered after a serendipitous journey south. Growing up in Michigan, she worked in the family vending business before moving eight years ago to a new state and a new beginning.

“All my life I had been searching for what I was supposed to be doing,” says Mulanix. “Moving here showed me the answer. It was so fulfilling to take my vision and make it come to life.”

Today, Mulanix is well-known as a talented metalworker and blacksmith. Her work can be seen at the Carrboro Town Hall, the Student Union at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and nearby Fearrington Village. She has been a featured artist on the annual Chatham County Artists’ Guild Studio Tour for years. Vance Remick, owner of The General Store Café in downtown Pittsboro, has been selling Mulanix’s metal works for years. Of the 75 artists who sell works at his shop, Remick says Mulanix’s is among the best and most popular.

“Tamera brings a flowing, light, feminine touch to metal that you just don’t typically see,” he says. “I really believe she is headed to greatness with her works.”
A petite woman with a quick smile, Mulanix hardily looks like one who spends her days hammering hard metals or firing a welding torch. But, her ability to transform cold, hard, lifeless steel into detailed works of art is now her calling card.

Mulinax and her husband, Vernon, live on a 4-acre wooded tract between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill. A winding dirt driveway leads back to the two-story home that also serves as a gallery for her business, Gypsysky Metalworks, named for her love of traveling.

Spending her days in a new workshop beside the home, Mulanix focuses on making both functional and sculptural pieces. Shaping metal is hard and time-consuming work. Mulanix, a strong supporter of recycling, combs junk and scrap metal yards for the perfect pieces.

 
She has made three life-size sculptures like Alexandria, each taking about six months. Alexandria, who weighs about 300 pounds, is crafted around a metal frame that can be separated into seven parts.  Cirque, a clown-like sculpture, found a home in Charlotte. “A Prayer for Peace”, a life-size sculpture of a person
holding up his hand to the sky in prayer, was sold to a couple in Chatham County.

After so much time and hard work on various pieces, Mulinax admits she hates to see some of them leave. But, she also looks forward to crafting the next challenging work. While the leap from working in the family business in Michigan to crafting metalwork in North Carolina may seem like a giant one, Mulanix says it feels like a perfect fit. Graduating from Michigan State University, she followed in the vending business footsteps of her father. She bought her first bubblegum machines to operate when she was 15, and at one time, she owned and managed 40 game crane machines across the state.

Moving to North Carolina with her husband in 1999, Mulanix dabbled in a variety of jobs from pet sitting to operating touch screen video games. But nothing seemed quite right for the newcomer. Nothing until a welding and blacksmithing class at Central Carolina Community College caught her eye.
“I actually come from a family of welders,” say Mulanix. “My grandfather, uncle and cousins are all welders and the process has
fascinated me as long as I can remember.”

So, in 2000, she signed up for her first class. Taught by well known welder John Amaro, the class tapped into an unknown creative outlet for Mulanix.
She started to buy some of her own metalworking equipment and took more classes.

“Now there is nothing I enjoy more than taking a rusty piece of scrap metal and turning it into something beautiful,” she says.

Pittsboro and Chatham County are known for their active artists’ community. Mulanix says that many have been supportive and encouraging of her new career.
“Other artists have let me come and just hang out in their shops, offering me advice and giving me some equipment,” she says. “It is an extremely accepting and helpful community.”

Mulanix is especially proud of the 12-foot tall sculpture with a 6-foot mandala that is now a permanent display at the Carrboro Town Hall. She created the piece as part of the 5000 Flowers Exhibit that occurred in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, commemorating the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists’ attacks.
In early September 2002, the mandala was installed in a bricked circle in front of the town hall. The symbol of unity and acceptance was the perfect fit for the site, local officials agree. Eventually, the mandala was purchased for the town hall location.

Pictured: Alexandria, a 7-foot tall angelic metal sculpture, greets guests at the studio of Pittsboro metalworks artist Tamera Mulanix.

Moving into a new 1,000-square-foot workshop late last year, Mulanix is excited about the next steps in her metalworking career. Already she has several new pieces of equipment that will enable her to expand her craftwork.

“Metalworking for me is like poetry for some people,” Mulanix says. “The designs express my emotions and offer the world a glimpse of my inner self.”

Jane Paige is a freelance writer