Metal Matters: Crafting Personalized Spoons & Bowls with Haley Bates - July 27 & 28

Take your metalsmithing skills to a whole new level in learning for to create one-of-a-kind metal spoons and bowls! In this 2-day workshop, participants will delve into the fundamentals of small-scale vessel metalsmithing, with an emphasis on forging, fabrication, and finishing techniques to create a personalized bowl and spoon.  Inspiration can be found in demitasse spoons, salt cellars, sugar bowls and spoons, and commemorative objects like souvenir spoons.

Through sheet metal fabrication processes and small-scale forging techniques, this workshop covers a wide range of approaches to creating functional and expressive metalwork.  Even a small object can still have a lot to say!

We will cover:

• Sheet metal forming and fabrication
• Simple forging techniques
• Cold connections
• Developing 2D patterns for 3D forms
• Soldering on a (relatively) larger scale
• Finishing techniques

Details:

• 14 contact hours, ages 14+ at the Silver Peak Studio Classroom  located at 100.5 E. Cleveland St. Lafayette 80026
• Saturday, July 27 from 9:00-5:00 and Sunday, July 28 from 9:00-3:00
• # students: 3 minimum, 6 maximum
• Materials kit fee: $65 for metal and studio materials. Payable to instructor at the beginning of class via cash, check, or Venmo. Due at the beginning of the first day of class via cash, check, or Venmo.
• Tools will be provided.  If you have these hammers, please bring them:
• •  Fretz HMR-3 Jeweler's Narrow Raising Hammer 2.75 oz.
  •  Picard Planishing/Cross Peen Hammer 13.2 oz
  •  Deadblow mallet 39 mm head 16 oz
• Prerequisite: Metals 1, Intro to Metalsmithing or equivalent.  Cold connections (riveting) experience preferred

By registering for a class at Silver Peak Studio, you agree to our cancellation policy, dress code for class, and studio rules.

About the instructor, Haley Bates:

Haley Bates is the Metalsmithing and Jewelry area coordinator, and teaches all levels of undergraduate and graduate study within the concentration.  She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas in 1994, and went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts Degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2002. In 2003, she accepted a position as head of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry program at Colorado State University, where she is currently an Associate Professor of Art.  Through her work, she reinterprets common objects that often function as cultural signifiers or indicators, reflecting assumptions regarding class structures and social status.  Her work has been published in American Craft and Metalsmith magazine, and exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Artist Statement:

I am drawn to objects in which design is dictated by use.  Such objects often function as cultural signifiers or indicators, reflecting assumptions regarding class structures and social status.  Through an exploration of process, reconfiguration, and material juxtapositions I undermine these assumptions and create forms that are both evocative and familiar.  Shifts in the treatment of such prosaic objects result in the creation of something new and incongruous:  aspects of the original form remain intact, yet new information and meaning can be applied through the process of such alteration.