If you're looking for a spring flower, you may want to take a look at the work of a local self-taught welder/artist.

It's not the natural type, but a heavy metal sculpture made from saw blades, well-worn horseshoes, bedsprings, rebar and other found metals, Sharitta Odom of Lehighton welds outdoor iron sculptures in designs of sunflowers, spring flowers and shovelheads. Her sunflowers are designed around a central flower head made from a circular saw blade with horseshoe petals and leaves, and a rebar stem.Her spring flowers are similar except they use retired bedsprings which allow the sculpture to sway in the wind.The third styling, the shovelhead, uses an old shovel or spade with its blade on top so that Odom can weld found metal items to it to create unique facial expressions.It all started 11 years ago when this Texas native got a puppy, Hootch, a Rottweiler/German Shepherd cross. "She was so sweet and lovable," Odom said. "Everyone in my small town knew about her and would see me out training her."The local school asked Odom was to bring Hootch for a visit. They heard about therapy dogs and wanted to see how one of their students would respond to Hootch. The girl, Bianca, a 6-year-old, had cerebral palsy, and the teachers were unable to get any response from the little girl."I went to the school, and it was really sad," Odom said. "Her hands were clenched. She had no motor skills. We put the dog beside her, and a teacher put the girl's arm on the dog's neck. All of a sudden, Bianca opened up her hand and was moving it along the dog's neck. Everyone became ecstatic.""I liked doing it, I did," Odom said. "I would come home in tears because I got so much more out of it then either one of them did."From there, Odom had Hootch certified as a therapy dog. Then, she went on to become a dog trainer. Following Katrina, she learned that Best Friends Dog Sanctuary saved many of the abandoned dogs. They needed experienced trainers to work with the dogs so they could find them "forever" homes.Odom agreed to train three dogs on her Texas ranch. To house them, she designed a kennel and began to build it by pouring a concrete pad and setting posts in the ground."I hired a welder to build the pipe and wire cage structure," Odom said. "I was disappointed, short of being outraged, at the poor quality of the work. I thought that I could do a better job than that.""So I decided, that for my 50th birthday, I wanted to learn to weld," she continued. "After everyone in the family got over the shock, I a helmet, the welding gloves, a Lincoln welding machine and all that." The welding machine came with a videotape, The Basics of Welding.She gleaned scrap metal from the farm and started experimenting. A friend drew a sketch of something that she had seen along the countryside, a metal sculpture of a flower made out of rebar, wire and found metal. "You can do that," she said.On her ranch, Odom's barn was a treasure trove of old horseshoes, rotary saw blades, and rebar. "That's where I came up with the materials for my first sunflower sculpture. It was about 16 inches in diameter and weighed 30 pounds. I primed, painted and varnished it.""Several friends and relatives wanted my sculptures," Odom said. A local store bought several, stuck them in a hay bale, and put them up for sale.People came to her with sketches, and soon she was regularly making sunflowers, spring slowers andshovelheads. She had to work with the local farrier to have recycle his old horseshoes for the sake of art. "I prefer old horseshoes," Odom said. "They have more character."In 2006, she moved to Lehighton to be closer to her daughter and three grandsons. She already taught two of them to weld and is readying to teach the third."Welding sculpture gives me stress relief," she said. "I enjoy to bang the metal and use the grinder."Recently she tried skydiving with PA Skydivers at the Hazleton Airport. She's made two tandem jumps and has added "learn to sky dive" to her bucket list. "My last jump was just fabulous. We left the plane and watched the sun set as we descended."For information about Sharitta Odom's sculptures, email:

reetee@frisvold.com.