Metal art is not only beautiful to look at, it is fun to make. Metal sculpture is something that people don't think about a lot, but almost everyone has elements of in their lives. Whether it is an artfully put together lamp, a piece of metal garden art such as a wrought iron fountain, or a precious keepsake in your house, there's probably some place where metal art is prominent.
I first became interested in the metal arts at a young age. We were actually doing wire sculpture as a school activity. Although today's litigious society would frown on a bunch of elementary school kids doing sculpture with wire – after all, you can poke yourself with wire – back then, it was a perfectly acceptable craft activity to do. Most of the kids found it frustrating, but I thought it was absolutely fascinating. I had a lot of fun making a metal giraffe out of wire, and was reluctant to put it down when the activity was over. As a matter of fact, I was so interested in metal art that my parents got me some more wires to work on sculpture at home.
Soon, I discovered that there were plenty of other metal arts that were within the abilities of a kid of my age. My parents trusted me more than perhaps they should have. I remember getting cut several times using tin snips to cut aluminum cans up. Nevertheless, I made quite a bit of metal wall art that year. I made little figurines that my parents could hang up around the house, as well as presents for my friends to give to them on their birthday parties. I was becoming so good, in fact, that my parents signed me up for metal art classes.
Most people frown on allowing little kids to weld, but my parents had bottomless faith in me and in the supervision of the art school. I'm glad they did. That welding class was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Most metal artists nowadays use welding as at least one element in their art. Working with bronze and plaster casting is difficult, dangerous, slow, and expensive. Metal welding is a great modern alternative to this older and more involved method. Not only can welding be a metal art in itself, but it can be combined with other techniques to create more sophisticated pieces. I had never been so inspired by what I learned before then.