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Suppose you want a custom metal element for your home — say, fabulously artsy doors for the front entry.

Because several people are required to create metal art, your designer or artist will need to co- ordinate design and fabrication, as well as secure complementary hardware.

That could mean that steps in a project have to be completed in studios and workshops all over town, adding time and cost to a job.

But getting custom-made projects could become easier by the end of this year, when a Metal Arts Village brings together many of the people who work in the medium.

The sales office for the Midtown arts community is scheduled to open this month.

By the fall, the village will include studios for metal artists, a sculpture garden and gallery. Plans also call for a foundry and areas for metal fabrication and computer-aided design.

"This will be a one-stop metal design center," says Lynn Rae Lowe, a metal artist who will run the gallery and have space in the village. A customer can meet and hire an artist, look at artwork for ideas or shop for a finished piece.

As many as 11 metal artists will be able to work at the one-acre site, currently a dusty, weeded corner in the furniture district. Sculptor Stephen Kimble, an attorney bitten by the art bug, will have a space in the project that he conceived and is financing. Everett Grondin, who makes custom gates and enclosures, also has signed on to open a studio.

The gallery and garden will exhibit works by the tenants and by artists on consignment. Blacksmith Casey Abbs and sculptor Bill Micka have agreed to provide pieces.

Kimble, who learned to weld five years ago and is "transitioning" from law to art, says he wanted a place where artists could improve their skills, more easily collaborate on projects and centralize essential services.

For customers, that translates into having a handy resource for incorporating metal art in the home and garden. Depending on the artists who participate in the village, that could include jewelry, garden and indoor sculptures, gates, wall art and furniture.

"We want to make nice, custom, unique things," he says.