Metalworking

​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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