Patching a seam on a steel piece this morning, a piece I built in 2014, and the client wants the weld dressed back to nothing. Fair enough, it's their money.

But here's the thing that's been nagging me. Of everything on that sculpture, the one part people stop and touch is a weld I never bothered to hide, up on the shoulder of the thing. Ran it too hot, got a nice even stack of dimes, left it. I was young and in a hurry, honestly.

Now I've spent a decade learning to make joints disappear and the one that shows is the one that reads as handmade. Grinding a bead flush takes twice as long as laying a good one and it buys you nothing but a smooth surface nobody notices.

Not going to pretend I've solved this. I still dress my welds. I just don't believe the reason anymore.