Sure, it’s spelled The Welder Chic, but Theresa Siochowicz pronounces it, the Welder CHICK, thank you very much. The name has come not only to identify her Victoria, B.C. welding and metal fabricating business, but the owner as well.
Trades
Sure, it’s spelled The Welder Chic, but Theresa Siochowicz pronounces it, the Welder CHICK, thank you very much.
The name has come not only to identify her Victoria, B.C. welding and metal fabricating business, but the owner as well.
“I remember volunteering at a jazz fest years ago and there was this chick, and she was running the sound equipment, and she called herself the sound guy chick, so it kind of stuck to her,” she said.
“When I entered welding, the guys on site would say, ‘There’s a chick… a welder chick,’ so that’s how the name got associated with me.”
Siochowicz got her feet wet in the construction industry at age 19.
“I used to build windows for a company in Guelph, Ont.,” she said.
“I loved the fact that I had my own tool belt and the sense of pride building things, but it wasn’t a consideration for a way to spend the rest of my life.”
Four years later, in 1998, she had just graduated from a diploma course in nutrition and was training at a kung-fu studio.
“I was 23 and I don’t think people wanted to get their nutrition information from a younger person,” she said.
“I needed a job and someone I met at the studio started me working in his coppersmith business, making swords. First labour, then grinding and eventually welding, moving up with experience — the hard way. The owner then signed me up for a three-year apprenticeship program at Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic.”
She earned her Alberta Journeyman Certificate in 2002, and her Red Seal, before establishing a welding partnership that lasted two years.
After considerable hard work, planning and getting her financial house in order, Siochowicz moved to Victoria in 2003.
She established The Welder Chic the following year.
“I have always had a strong feeling for being an entrepreneur,” she said.
“When my son was old enough to be put in daycare, I set out on my own. I already had a taste of punching a time clock in Calgary, and I realized I never wanted to work for another company.”
Siochowicz works largely on mid-size jobs, such as gates, railings, fences and other custom-fabrication jobs, such as boat building.
“I have had so much experience planning and laying out jobs, that the work breaks down to about 90 per cent fabrication and 10 per cent actual welding,” she said.
“I can weld on-site, but I prefer to weld in the shop, as then I don’t have to bring the entire shop to the job. I own five machines: a 350 power MIG, a 225 TIG, two 150 Maxstar Miller portable welders, and a 110 portable MIG.”
She teaches welding as well, to female students who might be less intimidated learning from a welder chic.
“It’s a wonderful experience to watch women’s faces light up when they see that its not so hard, and that they can do it,” she said.
It’s not that Siochowicz has anything against teaching men.
She’s had inquiries, but needs a full group of six men to offer a course.
“I’ve had some students continue on to take the Camosun College Welding C program, which is great,” she said.
“There is a need for more skilled tradespeople since all the baby boomers are nearing retirement, so part of my goal is to encourage more people to get into the trades.”
Siochowicz is on a brief hiatus this summer as she plans for the future.
“I will be steering away from some of the more industrial stuff and focusing more on custom fabrication, including railings with design, gates with a theme and real custom stuff,” she said.
“I have so many artistic ideas and feel I need to get them out there. Art projects are putting me into a fourth dimension and there’s no other way to describe it than that.”
After five years as The Welder Chic, Siochowicz said the business name is far less important than her reputation.
“I don’t think the gimmick makes any difference to those who know me,” she said.
“What matters is that I can competently execute the task and get the job done, while I obsess about it to the point of perfection.”
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