Collaborate With
The Wild Bison
Build Something Bigger Than One Shop
The Wild Bison was built around the idea that metal has more than one life.
A piece of scrap can become a sculpture. A leftover part can become the centerpiece of a project. A failed weld can become part of something completely new. And an idea from one shop can inspire someone halfway across the country to pick up a welder and create something of their own.
That's why we're not building The Wild Bison alone.
We're looking for artists, welders, fabricators, manufacturers, metal collectors, businesses, schools, instructors, and anyone else with something unique to bring to the herd. There are several ways to get involved.
1. Weld Kit Collaborations
Bring Your Creation to The Wild Bison Herd.
We love metal art. More importantly, we love giving people the opportunity to experience creating it themselves.
There are talented metal artists, welders, and fabricators all over the country creating incredible weld kits. Rather than trying to make everything ourselves, we'd rather work with the people who already have great designs and bring some of those creations together in one place.
That's where Weld Kit Collaborations come in. If you create or produce your own weld kit and think it belongs in The Wild Bison herd, we'd love to hear from you.
How It Works
A Weld Kit Collaboration could look something like this: You create the design and produce the kit. The Wild Bison helps promote, distribute, and sell it. Your name and story stay attached to your creation. We feature your work on our website, online store, social media, and other Wild Bison content when appropriate. The original creator retains ownership of their design, subject to the terms of the individual collaboration agreement. The Wild Bison takes an agreed-upon portion of the sale, and the creator receives the remainder.
The goal is simple: You make something awesome. We help get it into the hands of someone who wants to build it.
We're Selective About Our Collaborators
Not every weld kit automatically becomes a Wild Bison kit.
We're building a herd, not a junkyard. We want to know who created the kit, where it came from, how it is produced, what the quality is like, and what kind of experience the customer will have when they open the box.
We're looking for kits that are:
• Well designed
• Well made
• Unique
• Consistent
• Appropriate for the intended skill level
• Fun to build
• Backed by a creator who takes pride in their work
We want the experience to be great for everyone involved:
The creator, the Wild Bison, and the person holding the finished sculpture.
Interested in a Weld Kit Collaboration?
Send us an email at:
thewildbisonmetalartco@gmail.com
Tell us about your kit, your business, and what makes your creation special.
2. Bison Box Collaborations
Bring Something Unique to the Bison Box.
Bison Boxes are built around one simple idea: Take interesting pieces of metal and give someone the opportunity to turn them into something completely new. But sometimes the most interesting material isn't sitting in a scrap bin. It could be sitting in a welding shop, fabrication facility, manufacturing plant, weld school, on a farm, or behind someone's building because nobody could quite bring themselves to throw it away.
That's where Bison Box Collaborations come in. We're looking for people and companies with unique metal pieces available in consistent quantities that could become part of a collaborative Bison Box.
What Are We Looking For?
The possibilities are almost endless.
Maybe you have:
• 50 horseshoes
• 100 spark plugs
• 75 identical machine parts
• 50 unique pieces from an old piece of equipment
• 100 drops left over from a fabrication project
• Parts from 20 tractors
• Pieces left over after punching or drilling hundreds of holes
• A batch of manufacturing parts that didn't meet specification
• An overrun of promotional metal pieces
• Interesting components that have no practical use anymore
The important part isn't necessarily what the piece is. We're looking for consistency, quality, quantity, uniqueness, and creative potential. Ideally, we are looking for approximately 20 to 100 or more pieces of the same or similar material, depending on the project.
What Does a Collaboration Look Like?
A collaborative box could become:
Bison Box 001 × Your Name / Your Company
The collaboration becomes part of the story of the box.
Depending on the project, we may feature the collaborator:
• On the box itself
• On the product page
• In the online store
• On The Wild Bison website
• On social media
• In videos and other content
• Through a sticker or promotional material included with the box
The goal is to make sure the person or company that supplied the unique material is part of the story. Because the material already had a story. We're just giving it another chapter.
3. Material Donations
Give Good Metal Another Life.
Sometimes you don't need money for your scrap. Sometimes you just need someone to actually do something with it. If you have unique metal sitting around your shop, garage, farm, school, or business and you're looking for a better destination than the scrap bin, we'd love to hear from you.
We're particularly interested in mild steel and unique materials available in quantities of approximately 20 or more of the same or similar piece.
But don't assume something is too strange.
That's kind of our thing.
Old parts.
Unused inventory.
Fabrication drops.
Odd pieces.
Manufacturing leftovers.
Failed production runs.
Interesting components.
Pieces that have been sitting in the corner of the shop for years.
If you think it might make an interesting sculpture, we want to see it!
On occasion, we will also be interested in other material such as aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, and other metals beyond mild steel.
What Happens to Donated Material?
Depending on the material and its condition, donated pieces may be used in:
• Bison Boxes
• Collaborative Bison Boxes
• Weld kits
• Metal sculptures
• Educational projects
• Wild Bison content
• Future creative projects
We can't promise that every donation will be used, but we'll always look at the possibilities. Sometimes the best material is the stuff nobody knows what to do with.
4. School Collaborations
From The Welding Booth to The Bison Box. (This one is special.)
We believe welding education is about more than learning how to make a good weld. It's about learning how to make something. It's about problem solving. It's about creativity. It's about seeing a piece of metal and figuring out what it could become and sometimes, that first spark can change someone's direction entirely. That's why we're especially interested in working with welding schools, high schools, technical programs, colleges, career centers, and other educational programs.
Schools Can Become Collaborators Too
Imagine a welding program with:
50+ students.
50+ practice welds.
50+ pieces of filed T joints
50+ weld bent tests
Instead of those pieces going straight into the scrap bin, what if they became part of a Bison Box?
Imagine opening a box and finding a piece of metal that actually contains the weld practice of a student who made it. That's not just scrap anymore. That's part of the story. Schools may have all kinds of material that could potentially become part of a Bison Box collaboration:
• Weld pads
• Bend test pieces
• Practice plates
• Failed test pieces
• Fabrication drops
• Training materials
• Repeated practice pieces
• Consistent scrap components
A school could potentially help create an entire Bison Box around the work produced by its students.
Imagine the Possibilities
Bison Box × Welding Program.
A student makes a practice weld. That piece would normally go into the scrap bin. Instead, it becomes part of a Bison Box. Another student somewhere else buys the box. They build a sculpture. Now two students, two shops, and two completely different welding experiences have become part of the same story. That's the kind of collaboration we're interested in.
School Weld Kit Programs
We're also interested in helping schools provide students with opportunities to build metal art. Our weld kits can range from projects appropriate for beginners to more advanced projects for experienced welders. Schools interested in purchasing kits for classroom use, welding programs, student projects, or competitions are encouraged to contact us.
5. Weld Kit Donations
Help Put a Welder in Someone's Hands.
You don't have to be a school to help a student. If you love metal art, welding, fabrication, or simply believe in giving someone an opportunity to learn, you can purchase a weld kit through our donation program.
We'll work with schools and welding programs to get donated kits into the hands of students who can use them. You can purchase a donation through the option available in our online store.
When placing your donation order, you can tell us what type of kit you'd like to donate and, if you have a particular type of school or program in mind, you can include that information in your order notes. We cannot guarantee that a donated kit will go to the exact school or program requested, but we'll do our best to take your wishes into consideration.
Why Do This?
Because sometimes all it takes is one project. One class. One instructor. One piece of metal. One spark. And suddenly someone who never thought welding was for them discovers that they can actually make something.
Your donation helps put that opportunity in front of someone else.
You provide the kit.
We help find where it belongs.
A student gets to create something.
That's a pretty good use of a piece of metal.
[DONATE A WELD KIT HERE]
What Makes a Good Wild Bison Collaboration?
We're looking for collaborators who care about the experience as much as the product. Whether you're an artist, welder, manufacturer, fabricator, school, instructor, collector, or business, we're interested in things that are:
Unique: Something people haven't seen a hundred times before.
Well Made: The materials and finished product should meet the standard we'd want attached to The Wild Bison name.
Consistent: Especially for Bison Boxes, we're looking for materials that can be supplied consistently enough to create a uniform experience.
Creative: We want people to look at the material and start thinking.
Meaningful: the best collaborations have a story behind them.
And most importantly: We want people who want to be part of the herd.
Have Something We Should See?
Maybe you've got a box of metal you've been saving for years. Maybe you've designed a weld kit. Maybe your company has hundreds of identical pieces nobody knows what to do with. Maybe your welding students have created a mountain of practice pieces. Maybe you've got an idea we haven't thought of yet.
We want to hear it. Send us an email and tell us what you've got.
thewildbisonmetalartco@gmail.com
Include photographs whenever possible, along with a description of the material, approximate quantity, location, and what you have in mind.
We can't promise every idea will become a Wild Bison collaboration. But every great idea has to start somewhere. Let's see what you've got.
Join The Herd.
Create it. Build it. Repurpose it. Pass it on. Give metal another life.
-The Wild Bison Team