By Derik Gratz

While many high schools are able to only teach the basic welding courses, some students are inspired to raise the technology to an artistic level through their individual creativity.  Three Indiana students display talent that goes well beyond the ordinary.

DANIELLE DOUGLAS
Danielle Douglas is a senior at Columbus East and a third year welding technologies student at the Columbus North C4 Welding Technologies Lab in Columbus, Indiana.  She was a Project EXcell Top 60 finalist in 2006.  Out of 700 entries in the project EXcell art contest, Danielle made it to the top 60 with her design of a three-dimensional project titled “Mer des Visages” (Sea of Faces) properly named because of the four steel masks on the outside of the box and the four ceramic faces on the inside of the box.  The masks were made by hammering steel, welding and the use of different steel pieces to construct facial image masks.  The majority of the welding was done using the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process.

Danielle is presently working on an eight-foot-tall stainless steel torch design.  When this project is completed, it will be donated to her home school, Columbus East. 

JOE-D BAXTER
Joe-D Baxter is a 2006 graduate of Columbus North High School and is currently employed with a tool and die repair company.  He is also a farm toy maker.  Since he was a young child, Joe-D has designed, developed and reworked many different farm toys from Matchbox® and Hot Wheels® style trucks to different tractors, trailers and farm equipment. 

The April 2006 Toy Farmer magazine featured Joe-D’s work for his pulling tractor display at the Taylorsville, KY Farm Toy Show and Display where he won best display, best scratch -built model, and best truck and tractor.  Through an FFA class, Joe-D initiated and set up the first Columbus Farm Toy and Display Show.  He was a welding and machining student in high school. 

MICHAEL CARLIN
Michael Carlin was a three year welding student, a member of the C4 Engineering Cluster at Columbus North High School, and a member of the Community Advisory Board for the C4 welding class in Columbus, Indiana. 

With the help of his 3D art teacher, his welding instructors and his guidance counselor, Michael developed his own independent study class in metal sculpture.  He designed and fabricated four totally different welded sculptures.   One piece is abstract impressionism made out of pipe, one is geometric impressionism, one is a literal figure of a seal and one is a flat plane abstract sculpture. 

Michael was accepted into the Mechanical Engineering Technology School at Purdue, but has decided to join the U.S. Navy.  He qualified for both the Nuclear Propulsion field and the Navy SEALs.  He has decided to join the Navy SEALs to fulfill a dream and to serve his country.  He is planning to donate his Navy SEAL sculpture to the UDT/SEAL museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. 

Derik Gratz started his welding career at Vincennes University in Vincennes, Indiana in the fall of 1991.  Over a seven-year period, Derik worked in several shops to gain experience in a variety of settings.  He then began his teaching career at the Atterbury Job Corps center in Edinburgh, Indiana, where he spent eight very satisfying years.  He is now in his second year as a team teacher with Cesar De Luna in the C4 Welding and Cutting Technologies Class at Columbus North High School.

Derik says, “If you are there for the students, they know it and most of the time they really care because they know you care.”