Joshua Vissers/Daily Mining Gazette Payne Chassen stands in her L'Anse village smithy, where she works with mixed metals to create art for Village 104 Collective, which she founded.

L’ANSE — “I love working with metal,” said Payne Chassen, blacksmith, mixed-metal artist and the founder of Village 104 Collective in the heart of L’Anse. In her smithy, named Peninsula Hotworks, she uses reclaimed metal to create steel potted plants, trout decorations, custom-engraved hearts made from horseshoes and more.

“I just like finding a bunch of used materials and seeing what I can make out of it,” she said.

Chassen learned to weld at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute years ago, before she moved to Michigan where she’s lived for five years as of this week.

“It’s a beautiful place to be,” Chassen said.

She’s spent four years working in a single-stall, unattached garage behind her house. The garage has no electricity run to it, so when she uses her welder she has to run an extension to her kitchen to use the 220 volt outlet that powers her stove, as well as other regular extensions for lights.

“That’s dedication, I suppose,” she said.

Soon, she’ll be moving to a new shop in Skanee, where she says she’ll have at least four times the space.

When Chassen got tired of looking for places to sell her art, she decided to start the Village 104 Collective, which opened in November of 2017 at 104 North Main St. in the heart of L’Anse.

“You shouldn’t have to be a starving artist to be an artist,” she said. The Collective charges relatively little compared to many artist outlets that charge as much as 40 percent, according to Chassen. She only asks a dollar per day, and two days a month of volunteer work manning the store, which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. They get to keep all of the proceeds from sales of their work.

“Our shoppers know that we support our vendors,” Chassen said.

The shop displays the work of 14 vendors offering everything from soap to alpaca yarn and Chassen’s metalwork, but she says they’re shooting for around 20.

“Especially for people with special needs, transportation issues, or retirees,” Chassen said. Some of their vendors have special needs and earn some extra income by working with the Collective. Chassen works with her vendors to find an arrangement that works for them. If they don’t have time to volunteer behind the counter at the store, she can accept 20 percent of their revenue. Also, the artist doesn’t necessarily have to be the one volunteering.

Cookie Perrow, from L’Anse, volunteers at the store on behalf of her husband, Donald, who makes plates, bowls, bottle-stoppers and more by turning wood with a lathe.

“She’s always here,” said Chassen.

Before becoming a vendor at the shop, the couple traveled across multiple states to eight different art fairs to sell Donald’s work, but now they think they’ll only have to do two in the future. Perrow enjoys her time talking with people in the store, too. She retired from 30 years in the insurance industry on the same day as her husband retired from Pettibone.

“I missed the people,” Perrow said.

Many of the vendors at the Collective also offer beginners classes on things life knife-making, wood burning, fused glass and more. Contact Village 104 Collective for more information.