Nick Berardi's Story

Metal Artist, Blacksmith, Custom Metalwork Designer & Fabricator of Kansas City

Nick Berardi, the second to be exact. Son of firefighter and himself a retired firefighter of 34 years of the KCFD (Kansas City Fire Department), ex-Battalion Chief Nick Berardi II couldn't stop playing with fire after hanging up the helmet. From firefighting to fire forging, Nick Berardi designs, builds, melds and mallets metal into beauty and art. Creating functional art pieces and decorative art Nick Berardi has developed his talents into a wide range of metalworking skills giving a foundation of experience to handle many custom metalwork requests.

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The Beginnings

While firefighting was his dedication, his first love was art. Discovering his talent and passion for metal working in shop class way back in high school, Nick would often forgo the class curriculum to pursue his ideas and visions. Through high school and then into college, Nick would often spend most of his time in the art studio foregoing the "lesser" classes. After deciding to pursue the profession of firefighting, Nick continued working with his art passion focusing on metalwork and has now created a variety of functional and display art pieces, from custom firefighter shields to a a grated shade standing lamp to full multi-metal wall mural. These epic pieces and others can currently be seen when you stop by his studio and shop and the adjoining Enhance Your Art Gallery. Take a peek at some of his work now.

Nick's first public showing was at the Cedar Creek Art Show in Olathe, Kansas where he met Jan Gunn owner of Home Embellishments in Parkville, Missouri. Witnessing his work, Jan invited him to expand his opportunities and offered him to display and sell his work in her store.

During those 10 years, Nick created many signature pieces including a full bust steel firefighter sculpture that was on loan to the Fire Headquarters at the Century Tower for 15 years, color glass infused metal sculptures, metal and billiard table reused parts sculpture wall art, and a six-foot tall exposed steel with a cubed sun ray and an anvil window.

And Now

Following that successful era, Nick reconnected with Tim Buster a fellow KCFD retired firefighter at a fundraiser art show to support emergency workers. At the event Nick mentioned to Tim that he was looking for a shop for his studio. Witnessing his metal art talent and skills, Tim quickly invited Nick to “come on down” to his Enhance Your Art studio and shop, still the current home of Nick Berardi Studios.

Through the 3 years working from his new studio and joining BAM (Blacksmith Association of Missouri), a Christmas present from his wife, and ABANA (the Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America),  Nick has been focused on expanding his creative capacity and knowledge. As one of the few forgers in the Kansas City metro area, Nick’s skills are a rare find. Some of his favorite recent forging projects include the vine leaf wrapped sculpture sign installed at Working Families’ Friend in Quality Hill, a rock and steel sculpture of a vulture precariously perched on tree, and the molten metal inspired dagger he forged, and artisan fireplace screens he designed adorned with scrolls and other artistic embellishments.

His passion and vision doesn't stop there. His metal art goal for the next season of metal work is to dive deeper into learning new blacksmith and forging techniques--each day aiming to be the best metal artist that he can be. Recently, Nick even took the Luted Crucible Bronze Casting class from Piers Watson, incorporating methods of bronze casting with natural materials that Piers learned from his travels in India.

Nick has a beautiful wife of 27 years, Julia, as well as two beautiful daughters and a handsome son. His daughter Jordan is adventuring in college pursuing a degree in speech pathology and his other lovely daughter, Marin, pursues an advertising and marketing master’s degree, as well as his son, Nick Berardi III carrying on the family name and firefighting legacy.

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Nick Berardi II, retired firefighter, now metal artist, blacksmith and welder specializing in metal fabrication. Creating and forging custom metal art and functional decorative pieces for the home, office or firehouse, you can see works and sculptures created by Nick Beradi in the community of Kansas City where his business and studio is located. Nick is a member of BAM, the Blacksmith Association of Missouri and ABANA, the Artist Blacksmith's Association of North America. You can contact Nick Berardi at nick@nickberardistudios.com or 816-651-4892.