Donald Dawson

Vancouver Metal Fabricator • Blacksmith • Restorer • Instructor • Artist

From UBC to Small Business Owner

My 22-year career at UBC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering provided me with fascinating projects. I worked on varied and exceptional research projects as an Electrical Engineering Technician and Red Seal Journeyman Machinist and taught faculty, staff and students.

During those years, I built robotic, fibre-optics, nano, medical, microwave and radio science research components, including:

  • Robotic components for the forest industry – stackers and loaders for safety in rough terrain.
  • Robotic components for the space industry – a vibration-cancelling table for the MIR space station for the use of its microscopes.
  • Medical components for prostate imaging, hearing aids, and dental equipment.


Teaching

I began teaching from my earliest days at UBC. As a shop supervisor and machinist, I helped students bring their ideas and designs to life. It required fixing and modifying designs and called for precision machining and assembly of complex components, including the small intricate parts for the research mentioned above.

For students with cerebral palsy and other unique needs, I created ways to access and operate machinery safely, complete their projects, and finally graduate.


An Extensive Career

Before UBC, as I discovered my true interests, my jobs included architectural model building, theatre props building, stage managing and cabinetmaking.

Besides restoring the SS Master towboat, I fixed steam whistles. In August 2003, I attended the 8th Annual Celebration of Steam at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, B.C. Theresa Badger, then head of Education and Curatorial Operations, invited me to present a lecture about the SS Master. For that event, I brought 11 whistles totalling 900 pounds that I had restored and operated for this steam-powered whistle-blowing event.


Model Building

While working for Lindsay Architectural Models, I restored a mechanical relief map model of a railway in Rogers Pass, Illecillewaet, B.C. I machined and fabricated new parts for the mechanism that ran the tiny train via bicycle chain around the mountain through tunnels. This model was at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre.

Restoration of Heritage Steam Towboat SS Master & Steam Whistles

During 2002-2007, I volunteered on the heritage steam towboat SS Master. As Third Engineer, I machined, fabricated and restored the valves, fuel and water pumps, winches, boiler and the triple expansion steam engine. I maintained and operated mechanical devices within the wheelhouse and galley and cooked for and hosted Wooden Boat Society meets.

Besides restoring the SS Master towboat, I fixed steam whistles. In August 2003, I attended the 8th Annual Celebration of Steam at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan, B.C. Theresa Badger, then head of Education and Curatorial Operations, invited me to present a lecture about the SS Master. For that event, I brought 11 whistles totalling 900 pounds that I had restored and operated for this steam-powered whistle-blowing event.

Restoration – Operating Steam Whistles

Restoration – Steam Whistles with Peter Ommundsen & Donald Dawson

Kootenay Forge Founder John Smith with Donald Dawson


A Leadership Program Leads to Change

As fascinating as my work was at UBC, I had other dreams. Among them to open my shop. The invitation from my wife to join her in one of four retreats at a Leadership Training Program that she was attending reconnected me with those dreams. Without hesitation, not only did I resign, but I also completed the program.

It was time to do what I’d wanted so many years back when I learned blacksmithing from the late John Smith of Kootenay Forge in Crawford Bay, B.C.

Finding a space for my studio didn’t happen all at once. I had my eye on the one place I wanted to open shop, and in 2016, after waiting two years, a studio space opened at The Mergatroid Building in East Vancouver.

Vancouver Eastside Culture Crawl

In 2016, I created my first piece – a massive LED lamp made from an empty steel gas cylinder. When hit with a rubber mallet, it made great sounds. Later, a juried panel selected the lamp to represent that year’s theme – Sound of Light. It was my first public gallery exhibition, and I was thrilled.

The Crawl inspires me to create new work, including forge-inflated pieces. Generally, people don’t realize that you can inflate metal, too. You can make a metal pillow look billowy by heating it and then inflating it with compressed air. Besides art, I also scheduled demonstrations for visitors to watch me heat metal and form it into many objects.

With all the research projects I’d done at UBC, I wasn’t surprised that a Culture Crawl organizer, Jodie Ponto, called me a mad scientist. That year’s Bicycle-Powered Pipe Organ made an extraordinary impact.