Small Metals
Never did I think I would be working with metals, an art practice that never crossed my mind. I received my own desk made from wood, tools I have never seen in my life, gauge numbers that didn’t make sense at first, my toolbox that I carried with me, and fire that was used for everything. Being introduced to the hydraulic press, annealing my metal, soldering hollow forms, creating chains with jump rings learning through demos that I was visually invested upon. It’s bizarre to wrap my head around how many other techniques and tools I have used that are familiar to me now. Projects that wait for my hands to be at work during open studio and always keeping a creative mind.
The multiple trips you will have to make to the student store to get your metals or the new tool that the professor included in their demo. Handing in your rhino card, credit card, or cash to be able to walk back and continue the process of creating work that you could use in your everyday life. The library that functions to investigate a project, looking up artists who are in the field, people who are there for your needs to be able to fully digest and form your idea into reality.
It’s one thing to buy a necklace or a ring from the artisan itself than making it yourself. Measuring, outlining, and producing a project that involves brass, copper, and sometimes gold and silver. Takes patience, one thing that I've started to learn, to actually be patient. It's been two months since my first day, and now I know how to make my own chain with my own hands that got hurt along the way. My fingers would brush between metals, my hands changing from whites, pink, brown colors that spoke out. The bandages I would be wearing that showcased the artwork I was learning. It is exactly the same when I paint, my clothes are covered in acrylics that would stay there forever.
DON’T LET THIS SCARE YOU OFF from small metals because it’s an experience that you get to be in. It’s probably just my own mistakes because I haven't seen anyone get hurt. I haven't worn bandages since the first few weeks, I’m MORE PATIENT with my metals. I wear my mask, apron, ear plugs, and protective glasses that embodies the artisan within myself. It’s the late hours working next to the firing torch or the hammers that fuel my need to finish my piece. The hours of soldering with flux to put my pendant and chain together was a satisfying feeling. When I got to wear it around my neck, the polish tools I used to bring back it’s vivid brass color. I knew I had made the right decision on choosing small metals as my class.