Living Design Studios founder, president and studio director Jessica Adams says that the experience of working with one’s hands cannot be underestimated.

It’s that passion Adams has for working with her hands in her metalwork studio that allows for the company to celebrate its 30-year anniversary this year. Living Design Studios, 1010 Carbon Court in Erie, is an architectural and ornamental metal fabrication studio that focuses on custom and complex uses of ornamental metal in residential and commercial buildings.

“Technology can give us the impression that we are all powerful,” Adams said, “When you work with your hands, you have the opposite experience.”

The company’s metalsmithing work is featured in several prominent buildings on the Front Range and nearby foothills, including the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center and the Cash Register Building in downtown Denver; the Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora; and the Boulder Public Library. The company has received numerous industry awards.

Adams said she grew up in a family that was supportive of the arts and of building construction. Her love for working with her hands and creating things with metal only grew as she got older.

“Family conversations at the dinner table were about architects, engineering and stages of how things are built,” Adams said.

When Adams started to imagine her adult life, she pictured herself as a jeweler. But after a year in college, she spent the summer in Europe with her sister, where she truly became aware of the beauty of architecture.

“Really for the first time, I saw these architectural masterpieces where metalwork was supportive of the whole,” Adams said.

After a two-year apprenticeship in Europe, Adams returned to the United States and started doing on bronze work. After creating one decorative metalwork piece, she started getting recommended and getting hired to create other metalwork pieces, and soon enough, she had her own company.

With every new person who joined her company, new skills and talents came, too. All of those people brought different types of beauty as well, Adams said.

Devin Morrandez, creative lead, said beauty evokes happiness and joy. Especially in residential works, people take joy in taking part in ensuring their home is beautiful and unique, Morrandez said.

“The visuals can really affect a person’s attitude and their daily feelings,” Morrandez said.

Jonathan Falk, partner and director of business development, said that metalwork does not have to be ugly, just because it is necessary to construction and building safety.

Falk and Adams have known each other for a long time. After recovering from a construction accident, Adams asked Falk to help manage the shop, and his work in the business only grew.

“How (Adams) has managed to, not survive or thrive but really be a significant player in the metal construction world as a woman, I’m so privileged to be part of that,” Falk said.

Falk also said he and Adams both know that sometimes when you set out to make something, you just know you are going to mess up. But in those moments, what you learn from your mistakes is more valuable than the end result.

“I’m more about the process than the end result,” Falk said, “I really enjoy solving the problems in the process and making the process as efficient as possible.”

He said the challenge, the risk and the learning makes creation fun for him, and he is sure many at the company feel the same way.