The soldiers line the fort.
Their chariots await, their armour on the on stands.
The smiths of wood and metal and glass
Fire forth the strong and straight.
Print the banner, raise the flag.
Within the forge
The artisans
Belong.
Function finds its form.
Unexampled, never seen before.
They’ve no enemy to fight,
No blood to shed,
No tears to draw.
But to draw forth the tangible from light.
Ten thousand dreams to bring to life.
Guys taking a break behind Fort Houston
Nashville is a city that is rooted in music. It seems that everyone here is, or used to be, a musician or their parents are musicians or promoters or agents or songwriters…
And just like in LA, where every waiter is an actor with their big break just around the corner, in Nashville every waiter is a songwriter… with their big break just around the corner! So I guess we fit right in…
Erin Murphy, artist.
But, it is not all about music. There is a growing scene of makers and craftspeople and artists and artisans that give Nashville a beautiful home grown, home made, home designed and taken-home identity.
Our first day at the Fort, with Nick.
One of their homes is Fort Houston: a 10,000 square foot old hosiery factory that is a living, breathing, sparking space where things are made. Not made digitally, with pixels, binary or code, like so much of our 21st Century world.
But made with sweat, machines, oil, metal, glass, ink, wood, power tools, sound, light, fire.
Falling into this space, tucked behind the railway line, we willingly lost ourselves in the Fort Houston creative atmosphere. A maze of workshops, where you literally trip over tools and can find anything from fine art to a gear wrench, the fort is alive with the sound of makers.
Ryan, co-founder of Fort Houston, giving us a brief history of everything
Spending a week around its talented craftsmen, we began to see the secret of Fort Houston’s success. It is not ‘perfect’, it was not meticulously set out with a ten year business plan set in stone. It is an evolving creation itself, with artists and mechanics and smiths coming and going, being given the tools that they need and the inspiration around them in the form of people and space, giving back from within themselves, leaving their thumbprint on the walls and floors, and being challenged to create better.
Atlas Motorworks custom build
Atlas Motorworks and the motorcycle boys are the welcoming committee that spill out into the parking lot. A collection of their own bikes, along with the bikes of their clients, fills the stands.
Tyson at Knuckle Up Speed Shop
And as you move through their shops with parts and spanners and spare petrol tanks streamed everywhere, you begin the journey towards the print shop. With their headphones on, keeping their movements flowing and rhythmic, these boys work hard and long and their endless print cycles are almost robotic.
A Woodworker’s Dream
Then there is the woodshop, with its carpet of sawdust and the metalshop with flying sparks and hot, sunburned smiths.
Sparks will fly
Layer on layer at the print shop
And dotted here and there, a jewellery maker, a painter or two, a glass blower, and a puppy.
The newest member of the team.
It’s not a tourist attraction or and exhibit, although they do show work, but if you are ever passing through Nashville, make sure you visit 500 Houston Street, and say hello from The Travellers Two.
