Raised in Northampton MA, Derek found his love of making at a young age. His ambitions were fostered by his mother and father, who was a construction worker himself. Following high school Derek moved to Boston MA, to study at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design where he graduated with a BFA in Sculpture in 2014. After college, Derek moved to RI and began to find his way in the career of making, working at an architectural and art metal fabrication company. Having worked there for over a year, Derek went on to travel the country looking for a place where he would like to lay roots. It was a few critical connections, the city’s diverse neighborhoods, and amazing vegetarian eats around every corner that brought him to Philadelphia, PA.
In the fall of 2019, Derek established Weston Design & Fabrication, a custom fabrication and sculptural design-build company. He left his position of Lead Fabricator and Project Manager at the commercial construction firm Fritz & Co. where he worked from 2016-2019; many of these projects are included in the “selected works” section of this webpage. While working on these large scale projects, he began to realize the part of the job he enjoyed the most was creating pieces and elements that simply "make a space". Pursuing this passion, he opened up shop in and proudly occupies a 1,800 sq foot space in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia.
As the body of work included on this website shows, Derek’s ability to be versatile and work with mixed materials allows him to bring your ideas to life, from custom cabinetry to metal fabrication with some sculpture in between. In the summer of 2021, Weston was a featured maker on HGTV’s hit show “Hot Mess House”. He was brought on by the show’s hosts, Cassandra Aarssen and Wendell Holland, to make four pieces of multifunctional furniture which included tables, a pair of massive hall trees, and the most fun coffee table you have ever seen!
Weston has worked both for and alongside a variety of makers, artists, and firms around the country— from sculpture installations for Artist Ralph Helmick in Manhattan and Fort Lauderdale to ice sculptures with Peter Slavin in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, Weston’s diversity of past works allows him to think critically and on his feet. WestonDFS is available for all types of design, fabrication, installation, and consultation.
