Kata Rasch was at Bespoked Manchester with her steel brazed hardtail. As a new builder landing in a foreign land and having a whole bunch of people ask you about your frame in a second language, it must have been quite an intimidating experience. I persuaded her to submit to a few questions about her work.
Kata: I make custom frames, but I just started. This is my second frame and I’m still learning a lot and exploring.
How did you end up being a maker of things?
One and a half years ago I did a [framebuilding] course at Drust Cycles and after that I couldn’t stop thinking about my second frame. Then it became more and more the idea of maybe being a frame builder by my own.
Did you make other things before you went on the course? I’m just wondering what made you think, ‘oh, I’m going on a frame building course’?
I really love bikes and Konstantin [Drust] kind of offered the course to me. I also always had a lot of people around me who were in metal handcrafts.
What did you find the trickiest thing to learn so far?
I think being proud of what I’m doing and representing it, it’s really hard for me! I’m so excited about everything and everything is so new.
Do you have a favourite tool?
I have this one metal saw from my grand-grandfather and I really like that. It works really well too. He had a bike shop in the 19th century. I really love the idea of using it again.
Oh, it sounds great! And what does a typical day look like for you?
I wake up really, really early and then I go outside with my dog, and then I go to university, then work and after to the workshop, so it’s really full! I’m studying art, and to be teacher.
Do you have a favourite part of the making process?
I think I love really everything in the process, but I the brazing makes most fun for me.
How long does it typically take you to build a bike?
For this bike I needed ten days. But I’m always doing a lot of things in a day, so it’s not the full day.
What’s the hardest part of being a maker?
I think spending every free minute in the workshop. Sometimes it’s really hard to combine the social life and the wish to have a lot of time in the workshop, and to get all these things together, I think.
What’s the best part of being a maker?
Always thinking about the next frame!
Do you have something that you’re thinking you’re going to make next after this one?
Yeah, I want to build a cargo bike for my mother because she’s really supporting me a lot. I need to talk again to her, but I have a dog and Konstantin has, like, the son of my dog and she takes care of them, so she wants to carry them around. So I have to think about that.
A dog carrying cargo bike, I like it! Is there another maker whose work you particularly admire?
I share the workshop with Konstantin, so I see a lot of his work. But I think I really also like the work from Flo from Fernbicycles.
Thank you very much to Kata for working on that trickiest skill of promoting her work, and answering my questions! Hopefully she’ll be at Bespoked Dresden too… maybe with that dog-carrying cargo bike?
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Awesome. Loving the continuity with the 19th century tool.
Well just how cool is she? I love this kind of content, great work.
So what does she do in the afternoon?