Originally a farmer, Paul Boyum has worked in metal most of his life. He turned that expertise into a business, Paul’s Metal Petals, and creates works of art in metal, including the artistic bicycle racks and metal sculptures downtown.

In 2013, the Art Advisory Committee asked me if I’d create bicycle racks and sculptures for downtown Battle Lake as part of a public art project. I agreed and they gave me ideas of what they had in mind. Each piece was to represent something different about Battle Lake: cattails and herons for natural resources, fishing poles for recreation, corn for agriculture, and a stick-figure mother, father, and children for family.

Their ideas, of course, left a lot to the imagination, but I started working on creating four bicycle racks and two sculptures. Today I have a metal art business in Battle Lake on Highway 210 but back then I was working in my shop at my home. Finally, I had all the pieces finished and three from the Art Advisory Committee – Jonathan Hartman, Craig Haukebo and Reba Gilliand – came to pick them up. I could tell they were surprised – they were expecting 3 to 4-foot-tall bicycle racks and they got 7 to 8 ft!

This one in front of Everts Lumber— the corn bicycle rack—caught Reba’s attention. What’s that on the bottom?” she asked.” “Roots,” I replied. We all got a laugh out of that.

You’ll notice my signature PB on the bicycle racks, that’s on all the art I create. My specialty is art made from forks, spoons, and knives, and much of my art has a function, which is how I got started as a business.

My wife had a quilting shop in town and one day she was piecing a quilt when I stopped in. I noticed the cone of thread lying on its side in a Tupperware container, unrolling up through a loop in a nearby lamp and then into her sewing machine. I said, “This is a quilting business, isn’t it?” to which she replied, “Yes.” I told her the thread situation didn’t look very professional, and she informed me how hard it was to get a quality cone thread holder and asked if I could make her one that didn’t tip over. That was the start of Paul’s Metal Petals.