Tourists gazing at the beautiful wrought-iron balconies of the French Quarter are probably unaware of all the work and time it takes to make those lacy creations.

Charles Perez knows how hard it is to produce ornamental ironwork. He'��s been doing it for 35 years.

For the past four years, Perez and his wife, Carol, have operated Northshore Steel Fab LLC in Slidell just off Browns Village Road.

Charles Perez stands next to some of the ornamental ironwork that his company, Northshore Steel Fab LLC produces. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

The Perez'�� have lived in Covington for 22 years. Before they started Northshore Steel Fab, Perez was running his father'��s ornamental metal company then decided to start over with his own company.

Recently, Perez hosted a meeting of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the National Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metal Association at his shop. Over 40 ornamental iron workers from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama showed up to trade stories and swap techniques on iron work.

Ornamental ironwork took a big leap after Hurricane Katrina. Lots of people rebuilding and renovating needed Perez'�� services. He said people wanted something different on their new houses.

'��They were looking for new things,'�� Perez said.

Now that storm rebuilding and restoration has slowed, requests for ornamental iron work have died down with the downturn in the housing industry. Perez and his shop crew of eight are focusing on commercial work now.

They create metal scrap buckets for the offshore oil industry and metal canopies for buildings, and they even design and build metal booms for cranes. Two of the strangest projects Perez has had is fabricating a 10-foot by 20-foot oil drip pan out of steel for a crane. He'��s also built a giant frying pan for frying vegetables at the Sal and Judy'��s Restaurant in Lacombe.

Also in Lacombe, Northshore Steel Fab put together a 60-foot high steel cross for The Village Church. Perez cleaned, painted and welded the giant cross.

Actually, Perez said, he didn'��t do the welding. After 35 years, he doesn'��t want to weld anymore. He leaves that to his shop crew.

'��I'��ve welded for a long time, but not anymore,'�� Perez said with a chuckle.

Some of his work is even of museum quality '�” literally. NOMMA had one of Perez'�� wrought-iron pieces given to the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn.

However, he says that all he does is get the metal pieces and put them together.

He said that these days, welding technology is changing so fast, he leaves it to younger fabricators to learn. For example today there are computer operated welding machines, and Perez'�� has a wish to get a plasma burning welding machine.

Northshore Steel Fab is doing very well these days. With eight field workers, four in the office, and a projects designer, Perez has even managed to get fabrication contracts with the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Even though he is doing well with commercial metal work, he would like to see more ornamental work for his company.

'��Ornamental metal work is a trade that is coming back,'�� Perez said. Even though there are only 20 NOMMA members in Louisiana, Perez said the trade is growing in popularity throughout the country.