Jared Evans could just be the face of the future for Illawarra – going from one of the region’s traditional industries, to a successful new career based on innovation and creative handiwork.
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In an era where thousands of working-age residents of this region have had to retrain, take on a new career, or find a Plan B, Mr Evans has made it work.
It takes bravery, hard work, and the skills to pay the bills.
In Mr Evans’ case, it’s working with glass fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC), a lighter and more flexible material which he designs, moulds and polishes into one-off boutique items – tables, bench tops, barbecue areas.
Not that he was forced to leave his job as a fitter-machinist at South32’s Dendrobium coal mine.
Mr Evans, now 27, had started at the mine on an apprenticeship straight out of high school, and had been there almost eight years before he really started giving his concrete work a try on weekends.
It was going well – he was selling a few pieces, taking commissions, but using up all his holidays. The crossroads moment had arrived.
He took long service leave from the mine, using the money he had saved to give his dream a go, working out of a shared part of his father’s workshop at Unanderra.
By March this year he had to make a decision, so he resigned from the mine and took the leap into the unknown.
“Yes, it was [a bit scary] … but I knew if I didn’t take that opportunity I wasn’t going to be able to do it,” he said.
“It did worry me a little bit when you stop getting paid from your old job … but it seems like it’s still going, so it’s not too bad.”
Mr Evans’ business is called Set in Steel but his work’s starring feature is not steel, but rather the smooth polished concrete which forms the major surfaces of each piece.
The glass-fibre reinforced concrete is easily adaptable, mostly because the inlaid reinforcement means it can be set strongly at less thickness than the conventional, heavier, concrete.
It’s about a third the weight of conventional concrete, and measured at 60 MPa in strength.
“I found I can be more creative using this product due to its ease of handling and high degree of craft ability,” Mr Evans said.
“Usually a client comes to me with a fair idea of what they want, and I draw it all up … and we build it.”
Mr Evans has recently had to move to a new workshop to give himself more space, and he has more than enough business to keep him going.
And his estimate of success so far?
Humble and understated, Mr Evans says simply: “It looks like it’s headed in the right direction.”
