With a global pandemic derailing lives, I am going to do the sensible thing and derail this blog, if only momentarily.

First and foremost, let's join the chorus of sound advice and remind everyone as often as necessary to stay safe and healthy. Practice hand-washing guidelines (I like the old Alphabet song method), found here with the CDC: When and How to Wash Your Hands. Be mindful of personal space, yours and others'. And, if you're feeling ill, CALL your doctor or hospital first. Unless it's an emergency, crowding into hospitals in a time like this is the worst place to be, hands down.

Above all else, remember that your actions can and will effect everyone around you. Take responsibility for your actions and do not put everyone else at risk! Our safety depends on EVERYONE!

For more information, to keep up to date, visit the CDC website and your state's Department of Health. For PA residents: Department of Health.

Now, with everyone ordered home, worrying about everything there is to worry about (a LOT!), there are a zillion ways to distract yourself and ease the burdens of all that anxiety. Can you guess what some of them involve?

If you said 'art', you've been paying attention in class and can give yourself a gold star. Heck, toss in another for being such a great reader, too!

Art is an excellent and healthy medium in which to relax your mind and body in times of stress. Stress, as you know, can not only deteriorate your mental health but your physical health as well. So, this is the time to pick up some healthy habits by testing out methods of relaxation that suit you best.

For budding artists, particularly those with just a pencil and paper at the ready, picking up drawing is a great way to engage your creativity. Mo Willems has a great page with videos and educational tidbits that are fun and entertaining!

For art connoisseurs (so fancy!) that might prefer appreciating art over creating it, the Rubin Museum in New York has some great tips for delving deep into an art piece and finding a mindful balance while doing so.

Personally, if I can't concentrate on a piece I'm working on, my peace in all this madness is in sitting myself down in front of an art piece even if it's one found online, turning on relaxing music or meditative sounds off YouTube, and focusing on my breathing.

Whatever methods you try out, remember that variety is the spice of life so keep exploring new avenues. That way, you'll never fall into the counter intuitive habit of associating one technique to the stress you're trying to alleviate. And, even though we are currently forced to stay separated from loved ones right now, sharing your adventures in art, meditation, and creativity is an email, video call, or even a text away!

Normalcy will return only as fast as we can adapt so, stay healthy, stay mindful, and stay safe everyone.

​So, what is metalworking and how is it done? Aside from the high risk, high reward aspect of the medium I touched on before, metal covers a far broader field and can even be broken down into sub-mediums. Heavy metals, such as iron, have different properties from light metals, such as titanium. Working each metal takes experience and understanding of the individual materials.

Without breaking out the whole periodic table, I'll just say that every element reacts in its own way. Each has different melting points, how they conduct heat and electricity, and what their appearance is after being manipulated. Each metal can also be turned into an alloy, a metal mixed with other materials to enhance their properties (stronger, more durable, more flexible, lighter, heavier, the list goes on!). How a metal reacts to other materials is also something that requires knowledge and experience.

The art, in my opinion, in metalworking is in applying all that knowledge to working complicated materials with finesse. Metals are malleable with the right tools but it takes a true artist to know how far to stretch something without compromising the integrity of the material. Aside from the risk of fracturing a piece from too much or too little heat while its being formed, mistakes have to be kept to a bare minimum; or better not to make mistakes at all! There is such a thing as metal fatigue, when the material develops weaknesses from strain.

The problem of metal fatigue is also why I find scrap art all the more fascinating. You're working with something already shaped, something that's already taken some strain, and coaxing that material into going just a little further.

My hats off to all metalworkers out there and I look forward to seeing all the metal magic at this year's art show!

​As a lover of all art, from the strange to the technically perfect, I would like to spent the next several posts writing love letters to art mediums. I, myself, am an amateur painter preferring oil above acrylics. Being as I also have a fascination with the science of 'the hows', I have to say that metalworking is hands-down one of my greatest curiosities.

It takes a tenacious individual to ply their trade working with some of the most unyielding and temperamental materials. Even the softest gold requires some precision alchemy to get it to a liquid and get that liquid into a solid again. Temperatures of the tools, not just the metal, have to be maintained to avoid volatile reactions with something as docile as water droplets.

I know I'm not the only one that's forgotten a pot of water on the stove. Ever drop water on or into it after it boiled out? POP and hiss, right? Imagine a tiny drop of water getting between a metal mold and molten metal. A tiny explosion from water vapor can ruin more than just the art!

Metalworking can be wildly dangerous but a skilled and talented artist working with gold, silver, platinum, copper, brass, iron, steel, and everything in between can turn out magical results. I love jewelry as much as the next person, but I can't get enough of metal art crafted out of scraps. They have stories in them and I am a sucker for stories! Not only is there the history of where that material has been, but there are undoubtedly plenty of experiences an artist would have in choosing the metal, what they saw in it, and what it was like working with something imperfect all to reincarnate it into a brand new life.

If you have any metalworking stories, please share them!
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