’Polkadot Welder’ in Rohnert Park turns metal into fun art

Gardeners may not be fond of pesky snails munching their plants, but there’s a welcome variety around the North Bay, colorful and curious and handcrafted by artisan Erin Baker of Rohnert Park.

Customers enjoy her whimsical insects created from repurposed metal, particularly the cheerful garden snails she makes from bent rebar, old auto parts and wire, complete with painted polka dots and washers transformed into big bug eyes.

The snails, along with pig planters made from refrigerant tanks and hearts fashioned from wine barrel rings, are among Baker’s most popular items. Her home-based business, Polkadot Welder Metal Art & More, is a one-woman effort that has been brightening yards for the past six years.

Baker, 52, recycles discarded metals into everything from hearts and flowers to animals, reptiles and insects. She uses her welding skills to turn weathered chain and rocker arms into worms; faucet knobs into flowers; trashed barbed wire into beehives and fanciful hearts; old springs into wiener dogs; rusted wrenches and scrap metal into birds. When she’s done manipulating metal into artwork, she completes her creations with a rainbow of paints, even multi-colored tie-dye finishes.

Most of her creations are enhanced with polka dots or flowers formed from polka dots; she wears a red welding helmet with big, white polka dots given to her by her husband, Matt Baker, as a birthday gift.

The mother of four adult children works full time from her garage and driveway, typically returning outdoors after dinner to paint her array of metal turtles, ladybugs, ducks and more.

“It’s so much fun,” Baker said. “I have anxiety, but when I go out there (and work) I have no anxiety at all. It’s made my life so much better.”

Customers have supported her business throughout the coronavirus pandemic, ordering her artwork on Facebook and making no-contact pickups from her front porch. Her business has been steady over the past few months, despite cancellation of the festivals and events where she normally would sell her designs.

“It’s a constant make-and-sell,” she said.

Baker has more than 660 followers on Facebook, many requesting special orders, others who purchase items from the photos she posts. “They have been fabulous throughout this. They’ve kept me really busy.

“I couldn’t make enough hearts (for the demand). It’s not Valentine’s Day, but I’m still making them,” she said. “I did tons of the pride rainbow ones,” (to celebrate Gay Pride Month in June).

Baker never set out to establish a business. She was working as a bank teller when a customer who was a farrier brought in some pony-sized horseshoes. She took a few home and asked her husband, a professional welder, to fashion them into a flower. It was the start of a passion.

“Every day he got home from work I’d have stuff laid out on the driveway,” she said. Before long, he suggested she give welding a try and offered his expertise. “The first time I tried welding, I loved it. It’s pretty forgiving. If you have a grinding wheel, you can grind off your mistakes.”

Discarded tools, worn-down horseshoes and lengths of weathered rebar gained new purpose as crosses, four-leaf clovers and even a special-request helicopter. “I’ll see something and go, ‘I can make that with that.’ ” An old crankshaft becomes an alligator with its mouth welded from a posthole digger, with nails as teeth; horseshoes become butterflies, crabs, fish and “welcome” signs; metals with interesting aesthetics become hanging planters with crystals as drops of water. And, Baker said, “I use a ton of garden shovels.”

When she spotted someone with a tattoo of a heart with the shape of California within it, she knew the ink work could transfer into a metal creation.

Baker sources her supplies at auto junkyards, garage sales, estate sales and even from the side of the road, where her husband scored a truckload of barbed wire that had been dumped as trash.

A scrap metal yard in Chico is a favorite destination. “It’s the best. I call it Toys R Us for adults. It’s metal heaven,” she said. “I have so much stuff. I have tons of different metals.”

Baker buys old railroad ties on eBay from a seller in the Midwest (they make ideal grasshoppers, lizards, dragonflies and hummingbirds), and gets wine barrel rings from an artisan in Nevada who crafts the barrels into furniture but has little use for the metal. In addition to hearts, she transforms the rings into pink flamingos, flowers and crescent moons.

She keeps prices reasonable since most materials are affordable. Customers – from the Peninsula, Sacramento and even Alaska – compliment her artwork and “tell me it’s creative and magical and whimsical, and they can’t believe the price.” Her hearts, some for hanging on fences, others welded to a rebar post, sell for $10; her popular bees on wire stems are $15; and those snails she can barely keep in stock are $28 each for the 2-foot species, $45 for larger ones.

Baker welcomes custom orders — metal lookalikes of dogs and cats are popular — and can finish projects in paint colors of the customer’s choice. Her turnaround time runs from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the number of orders she’s handling.

Her workshop can resemble a barnyard or a zoo, an insectary or a refuge for reptiles and amphibians. At any given time, there’s a cow or a rooster, a giraffe or a hippo, or possibly dragonflies, turtles or frogs in various stages of completion.

She makes decorative owls from old shovels, with saw blades as wings. They are especially popular when finished with professional sports teams’ colors and logos. She’s made team owls highlighting the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, Green Bay Packers and others. They sell for $45.

Baker also has crafted yard art from items customers salvaged from family homes lost in the North Bay firestorms, turning scorched silverware into sentimental displays of flowers and insects.

She welds seasonal decorations, too, turning bulky refrigerant tanks into pumpkins, Dia de los Muertos skeletons and well-known characters like Frankenstein and the Grinch. Old hand drills and wrenches are disguised as a reindeer, complete with a red nose.

Aside from welding instructions from her husband, Baker has no training in the arts. She has a natural talent for turning what some see as junk into upcycled treasures. She did plenty of arts and crafts as a Girl Scout (her mother was the leader), and tried her hand at woodworking before turning to welding. Her late father was a skilled woodworker and longtime exhibitor at Rohnert Park’s annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Faire, which is now one of Baker’s regular shows.

She delights in spotting her artwork around the community, seeing how her decorative snails, spiders, billy goats, lizards, lions and other creations bring fun and whimsy to front porches and yards.

Spaces with Polkadot Welder yard and garden art just seem “more happy,” Baker said.

For more information, visit Polkadot Welder Metal Art & More on Facebook.