Studio 617 was started in 2009 as a way of surviving the 2007 and 2008 real estate and banking crashes. Those  destroyed a 10 year property rehabbing business and almost 1 million in accumulated earnings from that work.  When assets were turned into liabilities within a few months due to gross banking mis-deeds, we turned to production Art to try to make ends meet. . 

The CNC Plasma cut metal yard art idea came from my parents. They had seen a vendor in the Carolinas selling cool 3-D flowers,  and they thought it was something I might be good at and enjoy. 

Holly and I developed over 60 designs.  Some were only 2 dimensional silhouettes. Others were three dimensional assemblies. They ranged from $5 to $120. Some people built low cost sculpture gardens with our work.  Some people did all their holiday gift shopping with us. We were very active in the Arts and Crafts markets in the Baltimore MD and Washington DC area from 2009 to 2012.  During that time we went as far north as Philadelphia PA and all the way down into Southwest Virginia. 

In 2012 we moved to California. We shipped some items out and engaged in a few markets but we didn't ship the CNC Plasma machine out. Eventually that machine was sold the machine, but we still had some products and raw materials in moth balls in California. 

As of 7/17/2025 we are re-launching Studio 617.  At this time we have a small CNC Router and a small CNC Laser -- we have some unique address plaques we are preparing to introduce. We are working on a design to be dubbed,  "the worlds greatest mail slot". We are also going to burn through the rest of our metal art inventory via markets, online sales or wholesale.   After that we can still produce some of the 3D metal art and we are considering some other options. 

-------------------------------------

We are using the sale of these products to support the promotin and use of open source software design, with a focus on utilizing Google Sheets for database driven business systems. We also have some legacy web based business sytems we may attempt to open source as time and resources permit. 

In 2009, Studio 617 was started as an artisan welding studio to supplement income after the housing and banking crashes.  We started by offering 2D and 3D rusty metal yard art, and we quickly expanded into CNC cut metal address plaques and colored bead accessories. In 2012 a move from Baltimore MD to Monterey Bay CA forced the sale of the CNC plasma machine, and that put the business into mothballs. 

As of 7/17/2025, we are relaunching the Business under a broader umbrella of products for personal, home, and commercial benefit.