Metal Sculptures
Turning found metal into sculpture Just cut, pound, and grind

Okay, the phrase "cut, pound, and grind" is truly an over simplification of what is involved in metal sculpture work. It's actually the minute details in tool ingenuity placed between those words, in the phrase, that makes metal scraps come into life, as art.

Ron Norman and Tamara Shane both of Lopez Island have discovered for themselves tools and methods in taking their found metal scraps into works of art. Ron's work spans from the simple but elegant animal outlined shapes made from a single run of wire to much larger pieces that are done with mild steel that comes in the form of rolled sheets. He also works with brass and copper often incorporating them into his larger pieces as a texture, that both add color and visual contrasts to the steel. [See image titled "Salmon 1997"] Ron told me his primary tools for manipulating metals are the oxy acetylene torch, a big hammer, and an electric grinder. Of course for those who are familiar with Ron Norman on Lopez know of his extensive background in automotive, mechanics, and all things steel that took Ron to this natural transition as metal artist, from times he spent tinkering with metal scraps.

Tamara on the other hand works on a smaller scale both in the tool department and project size. She takes a more delicate approach to the manipulation of metal by creating illustrative detail to some of her pieces, a style carried over from her experience as an illustrator. In addition to hand cutting, she also is using a jeweler's saw to cut shapes away from an interior section of a whole piece, a tool brought over from her jewelry making. In her latest works that were inspired by the recent Tsunami disaster, she created human figures, and pieces of figures, that she layered with accessory items such as clothing, wings or swards all done in metal to form the entire subject. [See image titled "compassion"]

In regards to technique both artists obviously cut, pound, and grind their metals but they do so quite differently, and as differently as their individual art expresses. Tamara who hand cuts much of her metals relies on thin gauge and softer materials such as copper and brass for much of her work, where Ron will work a much wider range of metal thickness using the torch for cutting. As for pounding, I found that both artists commonly use a ball-peen hammer, but it's their other hammering and pounding tools that are the secret weapons to their art. Tamara described using chintz, punches, and nails but it's in the modification of these elements that lit her imagination to modify grinder bits to create new pounding shapes. Ron confessed to spontaneously grabbing a jute doormat off the threshold of this shop first because it absorbed the concussion of the pounding, and discovered more importantly that it left textured marks against his pounded areas. Ah-ha!

Once a piece is constructed into its finished shape the artist must then choose among a variety of techniques in creating visual or tactile texture, which may include any amount of pounding, grinding or annealing. And according to Ron it's just as likely to come in the form of whatever is at hand, or sitting on the ground in sight, to make it happen.

The process in which texture is acquired can be done largely by the process of pounding randomly into the metal, and of course depending on your choices of hammering instruments can produce a number of narrow pointed marks to vastly broad marks. By using a range of tools on a single piece you can spread or merge texture, or make it less random and more uniformed. According to what Tamara found copper is made stronger when pounded, she's testing this with her new hand shovels. [See image: "copper hand shovels"] With both artists I found pounding to be used in more regular and uniformed patterns and to achieve variation to their textures they employed different methods. Tamara with her thin, more narrow gauge, flat metal was employing bending thus creating wrinkles to create the illusion of folds in clothing to some of her figures, while Ron who uses much heavier thicker metal found his 4" electric grinder to produce lovely scraping marks to create the illusion of feathers for a Heron piece. [See image titled "Herron - wing detail"] Note the long sweeping strokes in the winged area were produced using the electric grinder.

Annealing I learned from Ron Norman to be a process used with high heat on steal which results in the presence of color. To anneal a piece of metal Ron will use a propane torch, and depending on the duration of time and proximity the flame applied to a location on the metals' surface it will cause a variation in color to appear. Tamara who uses much the same technique described the color shift in copper going from golden orange to a pink purple, then if the flame is applied too long the color shifts to silver. Tamara also uses the natural discoloration of copper or the painted surface to her found metals to exploit their natural color texture, just as Ron will allow the rust on steel to remain in place for emphasis to a selected area with perhaps grinding or treating around the specific area. Part of Ron's approach in annealing is to also seal the metal with a commercial clear acrylic material, which he reports when using on heated copper without allowing for a cool down time affects the color range omitting the blue tones.

Currently you can view Tamara's Tsunami inspired works on display at the Vortex Café on Lopez Island until early in March, and Ron Norman has a fabulous new Salmon on display at the Bay Side Café also on Lopez Island.