Meet Steve Clark | Machinist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steve Clark and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steve, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I play it very safe. If I want something I save up and buy it, I don’t gamble with money I don’t have and I don’t pay with more than I can lose. I don’t know, maybe it’s better to take bigger risks and leverage your future against a big opportunity now, I just can’t run a business that way. I’m not a big fan of debt and that’s what risk really means isn’t it? To risk falling into debt. No thank you.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I make things that are meant to last a long long time. Nothing i make has anything as short as a human lifetime. I have access to materials and machines that not just everyone had access to so I am able to make pens and other artsy gift items that never corrode or stop being beautiful and useful. It is very difficult to purchase and set up a large lathe in any average garage but during the height of the pandemic I just worked and went home, I stopped going out and I just focused on saving up to buy a lathe of my own. Unfortunately when it finnaly arrived, the guys unloading the truck dropped it upside down flat on the ground on my driveway. When I got home from work that day, there was the machine I had worked for and saved up for for over 2 years, weighing over a ton and smashed flat on the ground. Its not like I could just move it out of the way, plus no trucking service could move it without a forklift, so there it lay, in the rain, for 3 months. It was not easy to recover from that. None the less I was determined to make a go or of my little business even though my first true business assest was smashed to bits on my driveway. I think this is true for a lot of creative people, your art needs to get out, you have to open that valve or you will suffer. I needed that machine to make things properly so bit by bit I carried it up to my shop and reassembled it. It works pretty good for having a rough birth. I still use it to this day.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love my city so much, we have so many great places available. First we have lunch at the Aquarium then we go down to the art district, do some shopping on montrose, get some drinks at the pub at the fountains. That’s day one. If we’re in a spending mood we’ll eat at Fogo De Chao get some Brazilian steak. We can go some 3D Imax. Go walk around some bayous. There’s so much to do here.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My business partners Robin and Karen. Every smart decision was one of theirs, I’m just smart enough to know in not as smart as them.

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