Showroom sparks sales of welder's art

Even though Matthew Lund picked up the family trade, it took a while to win the grudging approval of his father for his work.

Lund's dad, a longtime welder in Tahoe City, didn't quite know what to make of his son's use of the welder's tools to create pieces of decorative art.

But as the business of the younger Lund Sparks-based Metal Matrix becomes more solidly rooted, the father is beginning to see the possibilities.

The company this year opened a showroom at 66 E.

Glendale hardly the center of the northern Nevada arts district as Matthew and Bethany Lund make a concerted effort to widen the reach of their two-year-old business.

"We're doing well," Matthew Lund said the other day.

"We're pulling our weight."

Even though the 1,500-square-foot showroom is filled with examples of Lund's work, nearly everything the company sells is one of a kind and made to order.

Lund makes candleholders and sconces, freestanding stands for bathroom sinks and bed frames and about anything else a customer might envision in the way of metal furnishing and accessories.

The company's market, Bethany Lund says, is composed mostly of middle- to upper-income customers, and most of them are women.

Those are customers who think twice before venturing into a traditional welding shop, the sort of space where Matthew Lund has been working for five years.

The showroom staffed by Bethany Lund is a place customers can talk over their designs, allowing Matthew to take them back to his shop for fabrication.

Bethany Lund, who earned a degree in art and photography from the University of California at Santa Cruz, said she's learned how to translate customers' barely formed wishes into designs that her husband can build.

Matthew Lund, meanwhile, calls himself a perfectionist, and he believes a satisfied customer is worth the occasional loss of a profit on a job.

"I can't afford to have one customer dissatisfied," he said.

"Whatever it takes, it has to be perfect."

Finished pieces range in price from several thousand dollars for big articles such as dining sets or stair railings to less than $50 for small items such as candle holders.

The Lunds haven't marketed Metal Matrix aggressively, relying on a few small ads in telephone directories to supplement their reliance on word-ofmouth among their customers.

While the new showroom is more comfortable for customers, it's location between a propane distributor and a car audio shop doesn't draw a lot of pedestrian traffic.

Along with its retail customers, the company also handles some assignments from homebuilding contractors.

While Metal Matrix is growing, a photography business owned by the couple helps keep them afloat.

That firm, APW Photography & Design, handles everything from scenic shots of the Lake Tahoe region to wedding photographs to design of Web sites.