Speaking with Darren Burrows

Darren Burrows is an actor, director, author, and jewelry artisan. I spoke with him about engraving and his other artistic endeavors.

Take me through the journey from actor to jewelry artisan. How did that come about?

Wow. Well, I'm not exactly sure how that came about. Well, I guess, you know what…My wife, one year she got me an engraving class for a birthday present, gun and knife engraving and stuff like that. And I've always appreciated that kind of a thing. So, she got me that for my birthday and I really liked it. And so I guess it's kind of one of those things, anything you do all the time you get better at, no matter what limited talent you have to begin with.

So you actually started engraving before you started crafting jewelry?

Yeah, and now that I'm talking about it, I remember I was engraving knives and things like that. And I got an email from a young lady, I don't remember who it was, but she said, "Is that all you do is engrave other people's stuff or do you ever make your own stuff?" And I took that the wrong way. I thought, "Wow, I feel less than…I'm only engraving other people's knives." So I kind of started making jewelry and got a torch and yeah, you can learn about anything on YouTube these days, I guess.

Ha. So, I've noticed. I've seen your rifle and pistol work. What's probably your most popular item to engrave? Knives or guns?

I have an FFL, so I do like doing the guns, and it's pretty easy to send me your gun and get it done. But I guess more people... Not everybody lives in a good state like Missouri or Texas, so I do get more knives.

Where do your designs come from? I really started wondering this after seeing your pirate lock.

Well, when people want me to do something for them, I take the elements that they give me and try to incorporate them into something that makes sense to me, to a greater or lesser degree of success, I suppose. But when I'm doing my own stuff like that lock, it's just something like I think that would be really cool. I got a hold of this brass lock and I thought, "Boy, it's kind of pirate-y looking. Imagine that being on a pirate chest." And I thought, "Ah, I’ll just put a skull on there." Yeah, so just kind of... I don't know. It's probably like writing. You just sit down and you start writing and then something happens.

Yeah. That's true.

Isn't that what they say about writing? Is even if you're blocked or can't think of nothing, the main thing is you just sit down and start.

You're exactly right. There's no such thing as writer’s block. You just start writing.

What's the most unusual request you've ever had so far as engraving goes?

Well, I don't know. I really like when they [customers] say, "Do what you want."

That must be nice. Just do what you want.

Those are my favorite ones. And then of course, my last six gun I did was this young lady who competes with the quick draw, and her name for when she's competing is Dead-eye Daisy. And I guess she's won some championships and stuff. And so I thought, well, if she wanted me to do the gun, and she said, "I love your stuff. Just do whatever you want there." And I said, "Well, do you want something feminine because you're a girl?" And like that. She said, "Oh, that would be great." And so I put daisies and stuff on it along with scroll-work and things like that. So kind of how that one worked.

And she liked it?

Oh yeah, she loves it. She loves it. And she says she makes her happy every time she practices.

Well, there you go. Do you make a lot of jewelry for your wife since she's the one that got you started?

Well, she gets the ones that don't work out so well. I will frequently make in her size just in case no one wants it.

Well, there you go.

She's a chef, so she doesn't wear too much jewelry in the kitchen. Nobody wants earrings in their cupcakes or nothing like that.

You’ve had over 30 acting credits but you are arguably most famous for playing Ed Chigliak on Northern Exposure. How is being known for one character both a blessing and a curse?

Well, I don't know. I guess people get where they see you... I mean, the people giving the job see you as that character. And so, I guess that's what people are talking about with the curse. And so if you want to do something else later, that's probably a problem. I guess that was probably a little bit of a problem. I don't know what the blessing and the curse of it is, but I enjoy acting. I enjoy acting when I'm acting, but any actor will tell you that's a very small part, a percentage of the year, even if you're working a lot. And the rest of the year is spent trying to get jobs or get the job you want. Even if you're hot right then, you're passing on jobs you don't want. And very little time is spent acting.

And the other thing I can say I don't like about acting is when you're making a project, you've got 100 people involved with the production of that, and they're all necessary. And they all think that they have opinions that matter, and some of them do and some of them don't. But the point is, by the time what you're doing gets on the screen, it's very rarely the way you would have it. And even if your performance is, the picture very seldom is the picture you read on the script that you wanted to do and that you were excited about doing.

Yeah, things get changed.

Yeah, so that's my favorite thing about the jewelry or the engraving is there's only one opinion that matters, and it's mine.

Northern Exposure ended its five-year run back in 1995, but it just recently began streaming. And the response to the show is phenomenal. The show holds up and there’s no talk of it being offensive or how it should be canceled like other shows from that era. Friends is a good example of that. But there doesn't seem to be any of that with Northern Exposure. Why do you think that is?

Well, I would of course, being an actor, credit the actors. And it was great writing too.

And of course, Barry Corbin in there, and John Cullum, who's won two Tonys, and just a lot of real actors that were just given the freedom to do what we wanted. And plus being up north, not shooting in LA on the studio lot. By the time there was a lot of attention paid to us, everybody was pretty much kind of set in their groove and everybody kind of played their character like real human beings. And I think on a certain level, I don't know if it was... I wouldn't go as far as say any TV show's great art. But great art, people identify with it on a human level no matter where they're from or what their background is because we are all human. And I think to a certain degree, it speaks to the human that's in all of us. And that's what I would attribute it to. I don't know if I'm right. That's just my opinion. You know what they say about those. Everybody's got one.

Well, tell me about your documentary Return to Cicely. How'd that come about and how's that been received?

It was received pretty good. I wrote a book first because everybody was always asking me all these questions about why wasn't the show coming back? And what was the problems? And different questions. And so I thought, well, a friend of mine urged me, "Why don't you just write the book?” So, I wrote the book, and part of the book was I went around and I talked to all my old castmates. And my friend Bernie came with me and he shot it on video so I wouldn't have to take notes.

So then after I wrote the book, we were looking at all the footage and stuff and it seemed, as we thought, "Wow, all the fans would probably like to see all this." And so we just put it all together and it kind of just came about organically. Never really set out to do it. But people seem to like it.

See Darren’s artwork at www.etsy.com/shop/MetalManiacArt

See Return to Cicely at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/returntocicelynow

This piece first appeared in the Fredericksburg Standard.

Like what you see? Want to keep the adventure going? Fire a PayPal or Venmo in my direction & you may get a shout out! Hot Tip: Include blog idea in the description…