Mimi Riley

Teaches at South Seattle College Continuing Educ

While working as a Commercial/Industrial IBEW Electrician for 10 years Mimi found herself fascinated by the ironworkers who would fit and weld enormous steel beams into place that were the structure for an entire building. She started scrounging the job site leftovers. She bought her first welder from an ironworker and started welding scraps together. She entered a worker retraining program at South Seattle Community College and studied Welding and Blacksmithing for 1-1/2 years. She is entranced by steel in all its forms: dark gray mill scale, rusty mottled brown and bright shiny silver steel. Sparks flying and the feel of heat radiating off molten orange metal exhilarate her.