Displaying a clock and a free-form chair.  “Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination ....”

Thus begins the song that leads us into chocolate room of Willy Wonka’s factory. Stepping inside the shop of Bach Steel in Holt gives you a similar feeling. Although there’s nothing to eat, and you might lose a finger if you touch anything, you get the sense that this is indeed a place where magical things happen courtesy of the gifted hands of Nels Raynor. Read page 1 of this article >

As he told it, “My dad was a ceramics professor at Michigan State. I used to go with him every weekend. I threw pots, but I liked to hang out in the sculpture lab.

I was about 12 years old when I decided I wanted to play with metal, and I’ve never done anything else.”

He began working with iron at 19, held several jobs at several companies, and started Bach Steel in 1997.

Read page 2 of this article >

The first thing Holt's Nels Raynor wanted to do on Sept. 11 was drive to New York City and lend a helping hand.

But two days after officials there told him it would be extremely difficult to get into the city, Raynor, 41, decided to make a steel sculpture as a gift for New York Firefighters.

One hundred fifty hours later, the ironworker built a 3 1/2 foot tall, 150-pound sculpture of an arm holding and American flag with a firefighter's helmet resting on the top. Read more and view this article >

Elaine West wasn't expecting a work of art when the steelworker who put up the structure of the new Greater Lansing Association of Realtors headquarters installed the staircase.

But Nels Raynor isn't just a structural steel guy, even though it's admittedly the bread and butter of Holt-based Bach Ornamental and Structural Steel Inc.

He's been welding since he was 12 and every now and then finds the right project in which to display his artistic talents. Read more and view this article >