Mark Puigmarti
Blacksmith
What seems like lifetimes ago Mark was refrigeration and HVAC mechanic. Working on commercial industrial gizmos that kept things or people warm or cold, while usually experiencing the polar opposite temperature of whatever it was he was trying to rectify. It is a respectable trade that many men and some women make a respectable living at. However, as much as he tried to make the piping arrangements visually pleasing, orderly, and followable there was something lacking. It just never quite clicked with his persistent dream to follow a more artistic path.
One day about half way into a 25 year run at HVACR, he made it his mission to try and change what seemed truly unchangeable. Slowly with a long list of coincidences, happy accidents and a $#!+load of sacrifices, particularly by his supportive wife Christine, positive results started to accumulate in the intended direction of working with hot metal. This did indeed take 10 years of incremental progression to end up at the beginning of a new and completely unrecognizable life and style. It is not lost on him to grasp the sheer improbability to do that mid-career, in that career, or any for that matter. That cord was cut 16 years ago now.