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"We decided that was a sign, that it was time to go into business full time," she said. "We're very spiritual and we definitely think that God has set clear paths in our lives." They immediately had work, mostly industrial. "We were small and didn't have the overhead, so could charge less."

Mostly art: While Beechwood Metals started with 80 percent industrial work, it's now flipped to 80 percent artistic work. That started with the 2006 show of Alamance County Arts Council's biannual Willow Walk.

"We were getting ready for the show and trying to think of bigger sculptures. With two girls, Casey was thinking 'Alice in Wonderland' kinds of things. So we made eight-foot-tall flowers, a Gerber daisy, daffodil, tulip and daylily. People loved them, and the arts council bought all four of them for the city of Burlington." They're now installed around the carousel and rides at Burlington City Park.

Secret garden: The flowers led to what Lewis calls "our first big break," an opportunity to make a 28-piece rooftop wind garden for the UNC Children's Hospital, called the Charli Ramsey Moving Memory Garden. "We made bumblebees that fly around in circles, flowers that spin, a grasshopper that goes around on a blade of grass." While the garden cannot be seen from public spaces, the couple has been asked to bid on another UNC hospital job that would be visible.

Helping hands: Last summer's fire put some of their work on hold for several months, but "all our customers were great," Lewis said. Their church, Trinity Worship Center in Burlington, helped them clean up the fire site and raised grocery money for the family. The Lewises also have a family friend who has helped them out over the years. "He got us into the building we're in now," she said of the 5,000-square-foot building they moved into in October, which they're already adding on to. "Now we have a waterjet machine that cuts everything with water, not only metal but marble and stone and glass."

More art: On the horizon is more artistic and interactive work, Lewis said. "Casey is getting a little itchy. He wants to do more abstract pieces and have more chances to be the artist. We're also playing with solar power and wind movement. We're working on a Gerber daisy with a solar-powered bee that goes around it." They're also building another wind garden for a hospital in Tulsa. "Our conference room is filled with metal grass, another room has 10 or so giant mushrooms, and we have giant bees in hallways."

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