What is this?

This is the sixth installment of articles, written for Artisan Crafts Month, which introduce the Artisan Crafts sub-galleries by talking about what they are, how to do work within them, and featuring artwork from the galleries. In this edition I will be talking about the Metal Work Gallery!

What is Metal Work?

Defintion from deviantART Gallery Description:

Metal work, including swords, armor, chain mail, metal forging and blacksmithing.

Metal work is basically the art of creating thing using metal. As listed in the dA Gallery Description, there are numerous things to which metal can accompany.


General Resources:

Here are some website resources that you might find useful.

• Chainmaille How-To's


• Chainmaille Books & DVDs


• MailleArtisans.org

Find more at *ArtisanCrafts!

Show me some examples!

Artist: *the-metalchemist
Thumb:

Why is this a good metal work piece?
Not only does this artist bring us a fresh, unique concept and piece of artwork, but they provide an in depth description which includes FAQs about the piece, the history and idea behind the piece, as well as thoughts behind how they achieved the piece's completion.


Artist: *aglaranna
Thumb:

Why is this a good metal work piece?
Here we see an interesting combination of functionality in art, portrayed through a vase. This artist was able to use metal in a way that would provide use of us, but art for any gallery.





There are many more great examples, which you can see for yourself here!

Do you have any Resources?

Here are some dA tutorials I've found that might help you Metal Workers out there!



Tutorial "Wire to Rings", by ~thebenignbassoon
This tutorial will help you in getting "plain round wires [into] rings." The artist has provided step by step instructions as well as cleverly designs illustrations to help you along.



Chainmaile Byzantine Tutorial, by *crazed-fangirl
A tutorial that shows one technique you can used for creating Byzantine Chainmaile.

I found a miscat! What do I do?

That's easy! Whenever you think you have found a miscategorization, there is one crucial thing that you need to do. Go to the deviation page, and in the Artist's Description box you will see a link titled, "Report Policy Violation" (It is located under the Picture information / Thumb code box). Go here, and click "Miscategorization" in the drop-down menu located next to the 'Type of Violation' section. In the 'Comment' section you will want to take the time to tell the Artisan Crafts Gallery Director (^Myana) why it does not belong, and why it should be moved. Let her know a possible new home (category) for it, and any information that might be helpful to her in the process of dealing with the Miscat.

You can see how this could be done here:



Some things that don't belong in Metal work:

• Store bought metal pieces.

I know all I need to know now!

That is it for this edition. Stay tuned for the next edition where I explore Folding & Papercraft!



Now Get Browsing!