STAINLESS steel and nature may seem an odd juxtaposition, but for West Somerset sculptor Belle Cole, the combination is as natural as breathing.

Belle, 32, is a metal artist based at Cowbridge Sawmill, Timberscombe, and welds everything from motorbikes to tea light holders, flowers to water features and, more recently, environmental art sculptures.

With clients both local and national, as well as elsewhere in the world, she finds demand for her products has been unaffected by the pandemic. But at the moment, her order books are full and she has closed them for a few weeks to finish work she is doing on environmental art pieces for Devon Sculpture Park.

Nature and the Exmoor environment that she loves, and in which she grew up, are Belle’s inspiration. She became a welder after finding out that metal was her passion.

“I was lucky and was brought up in an artistically aware environment. My dad was an antique dealer in Watchet – he had Lindy’s Emporium – and used to renovate and sell antique furniture.

“My passion for stainless steel began when I worked for a custom motorbike maker, John Sully, in Williton, and he taught me welding and all I know,” said Belle, who rides motorbikes herself.

“I’ve always had a desire to tap into nature and adore flowers and their history,” she said. “Stainless steel is so industrial looking, but when it’s done, it has a quality and a feel and weight to it, and I use propane too, to give it colour.”

Belle did an engineering diploma at Bridgwater College, started working on customers’ bikes, had a son, Jonty, who is now four, and set up her own business as a metal artist and sculptor in 2018.

For the full story see this week’s West Somerset Free Press.