Between changing trends and unpredictable algorithms, there’s no simple blueprint to gaining thousands of social media followers.
Yet Apsley metal artist Rachel Charlebois has done exactly that, racking up more than 57,000 followers on her Metal by Rachel Instagram account.
The platform has helped her build an audience of not only those residing in and cottaging near her village, but of welders, artists, and admirers from across the world.
“Now we just need something that pays per views on Instagram,” Charlebois jokes. “That would be ideal.”
Through her social media channels (she’s also on TikTok and Facebook), Charlebois sells the custom signs, furniture, and artwork she crafts with her steady hand, a fine eye for detail, and her Hypertherm Powermax45 XP plasma cutter.
Often focusing on landscapes, scenery, and wildlife for design, she typically uses a 14-gauge mild steel with various techniques for colouring and layering.
And it was all self-taught, while she worked in Moase Machine Shop just down the road from her family home after high school. While she had a few tech classes in welding while attending school in Lakefield, she mostly learned on the job while repairing snowplows and other heavy machinery.
Knowing Charlebois had always been “artsy” with a fondness for drawing, one day eight years ago, her boss encouraged her to get creative with the plasma cutter.
“I picked it up, drew something, started playing around, and I just loved it,” she recalls. “I started out with trees because I love trees — that was always one of my favourite things to draw.”
Charlebois stayed at Moase Machine Shop for 15 years, doing her art in her free time while attending shows and even being included in the Apsley Autumn Studio Tour for a few years.
“Doing the tours and little art shows here and there would help me to build the confidence to be able to start the business,” she says, acknowledging that she was always more reserved growing up. “I just did whatever I wanted and hoped people would buy it.”
People were doing exactly that and finally, four years ago, Charlebois officially launched Metal by Rachel and began doing custom pieces. She rented shop space from Moase Machine to weld her creations up until last year, when she moved into her own private workshop on her own property in Apsley.
While taking on the new orders — often surnames tethered to wood or other sheet metal — Charlebois takes every opportunity to push herself to be creative and find new ways to approach her medium.
“Now that I’ve had my work out there for a while, it’s easier for people to allow my creative freedom because they can look back through my previous work and see my style,” Charlebois notes.
When she does get those opportunities to get creative, she doesn’t hesitate to try something new, like applying heat or rusting for colour.
While a lot her designs are crafted using a Cricut machine to design a template that helps her draw on the steel, Charlebois tries to draw freehand when she can.
“When you’re an artist, you feel sometimes like you get trapped into making the same thing, and it can be a little bit draining,” she acknowledges. “But the more confident I get, the more I ask clients if I can have more creative freedom to explore more, which really helps.”
Recently, when Charlebois received a custom order for an image of a Highland cow, she asked if she could take creative reign. What she ended up with has become one of her favourite pieces, as it posed a challenge for her as something she hadn’t done before.
“Most of the time when I pick favourites, it’s because I was a little nervous going into it and by the end, I proved to myself that I could do it,” she says. “It just makes it that much more worthwhile.”
Though Charlebois has had several Instagram reels that have gained hundreds of thousands (and sometimes more than a million) views to give her a surplus of followers, most of her over over 57,000 Instagram followers have come over a steady pace throughout her years in businesses.
“A lot of my orders on Instagram come from the States, which is interesting,” she says. “Then Facebook is a lot more of the local audience, so I really get the best of both worlds.”
Dozens of the comments on her feed come from fellow professional and hobbyist welders and artists asking for tips and advice on the equipment and techniques she uses.
Catering to this audience, Charlebois has curated story “highlights” of how-to demonstrations and various equipment to support the followers who have found her while searching for content on plasma cutting.
“The fact that I do it by hand is pretty interesting to a lot of people,” she says, noting that a lot of metal work is made through CNC (computer numerical control), a method that uses software to direct the plasma cutter.
@metalbyrachel Custom commissioned tree art on barn board. #metalart #artistsoftiktok #plasmacutting #plasmacutter #hypertherm #metalartist #metalwork ♬ Faded (Tabata Mix) – Tabata Music
“There’s definitely a benefit with that too — because people can make a whole bunch of something and be able to do it faster, sell it for cheaper, and get more customers — but I think there’s something special about handmade,” Charlebois adds. “When you do it by hand, no two are ever the same. Nothing will ever be the same. Maybe that’s why people are drawn to it.”
Recently Charlebois has taken on more projects in collaboration with her husband Justin Charlebois and his woodworking business, Arc N Saw, to create custom-made furniture, including a harvest table and coffee table.
This year, the duo will be working together more often to craft one-of-a-kind furniture that blends wood and metal.
“Making table legs makes me a little bit nervous because it’s not as artsy for me” Charlebois admits. “It’s more about having to measure and being very specific and perfect — but it helps me grow my work, for sure.”
Similarly, Charlebois says launching her own business has provided her with more than an income.
“It’s definitely helped me grow and come out of my comfort zone,” she says. “Some parts of it makes me so nervous, but now that I’m older I’ve realized that that’s just part of being human and you have to push through it. Once you push through, it helps you become more confident.”
Charlebois accepts custom orders through email at metalbyrachel@outlook.com. To browse her work, follow Metal by Rachel on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
