[funky instrumental music]
I like to go to salvage yards,
any kind of store that carries lots of old junk and tools.
Here we go.
Yeah, check it out.
She's a beauty.
Primarily I look for shovels,
wheelbarrows, tool boxes,
anything I think that would be interesting to cut out.
Score.
After doing this for 17 years,
I just know what I like
and what catches my eye.
There's no rhyme or reason to my madness.
[Kelly laughs]
[metal clanks]
I draw everything free hand,
just straight onto the metal.
My designs are just something
that comes out of my head.
I really like detail,
and I like to draw really small, intricate things.
[inspiring music]
The tool I use for cutting my metal is a plasma cutter.
[plasma cutter hisses]
Plasma cutter is pressurized by oxygen.
Oxygen runs through a very small channel,
and inside that channel is an electrode,
and when you fire the plasma cutter,
it heats it up to about,
approximately 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
And so when I'm using the plasma cutter,
basically, I'm drawing with fire.
[plasma cutter hisses]
There is some danger when doing plasma cutting.
I have had injuries.
Slag goes down my boot,
gets stuck in my sock.
By the time you get your shoe off and stuff,
it's burnt.
I got some good scars.
[plasma cutter hisses]
I think I like working with metal,
because it's got endless possibilities
of what you can do with it.
[metal tapping]
[plasma cutter hisses]
I like the idea of taking a hard, static metal
and turning it into something soft and beautiful.
[upbeat music]
Besides the shovels,
I create anything that looks fun to cut out,
old toolboxes, wheelbarrows.
I do a lot of signs,
gates, fences,
you name it,
and I will make it.
[Kelly laughs]
[engine roaring]
[intense heavy metal music]
[engine roaring]
[bright guitar music]
I was invited onto the rat rod team last year
by my friend, Gary Fisher,
who builds rat rods,
and asked me if I'd be interested
in doing some artwork for it.
[bright guitar music continues]
A rat rod is blended pieces of art
from all different kinds of cars,
motorcycle parts, plane parts, Ford Chevy,
blended to make one beautiful piece of art.
My reason for bringing Kelly on
was to bring something totally new
that hasn't been created before
into a culture that is blue collar all the way.
There's nobody else like her.
There's nobody else that could do her work,
and I knew that I had to up the game.
You know, I've never been around that scene
of building a car from scratch.
[upbeat music]
Oh, I just felt flattered
and I felt so good to be a part of the team.
It was so fun.
I know all the great builders,
and they knew when she put that piece together,
it stepped up the whole game of rat rodding
and the culture.
[upbeat music]
June of last year,
we took the car to St. Louis for the competition,
and it was quite a spectacle.
There's 500 cars that show up there,
and it's just like this mega free-for-all of rat rods.
The judges are looking for creativity,
just something that's totally different.
It was down to the final 12,
and they were starting to eliminate the different vehicles.
It got down to like three left,
and then two,
and we were...
You know, it could go either way.
The moment they announced the winner,
it was screaming, and yelling,
and pictures, and big trophy.
It was really fun.
I have a new project in the works.
It's a 1936 Chevy pickup.
Okay, so I wanna hang this
to see what it's gonna look like.
As a suicide door-
Go on that side and I'll open it up for you.
Opens like that.
That looks pretty cool.
I like that.
Suicide it is.
I'm kind of starting to sketch on it
in different places on the truck,
ideas that I have for cutting it out.
I want quite a bit of art on it.
[bright music]
I would like to be one of the first women
to build a rat rod and enter it in a competition.
I think that would be super cool.
[bright music continues]
I'm very excited about doing this project.
It's time-consuming and it's...
I'm learning a lot,
so that's a great thing for me.
It's a good challenge.
Climb in.
[Kelly laughs]
Yeah, I like it.
Perfect.