Metal Arts

In 2018, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp introduced a Metal Arts concentration for art majors. The students have 10 work days during a vigorous camp schedule, keeping them busy most of the day. Each student has two other classes in addition to sculpture. They also have studio time in the afternoon to work on their projects in the class of their choice.  Studio time is not instructional time, it is, however, time to catch up on projects they might be behind in.

In 2017, as a sculpture faculty member, I introduced sawing with a jewelers saw instead of a regular sculpture project to help prove the success a full class could have on the students. They created 3x3 self portraits out of colored aluminum. The next summer, the class was fully realized after three attempted proposals. During the third session, my metal arts class was introduced to a paper jewelry project and a tab setting project including found objects. The class was wildly successful across all 4 sessions of camp. 

In a fast-paced environment, such as summer camp, there is not always time to finish projects based on the student's work ethic and knowledge of the materials. Most are new to metal arts and it takes a while to learn the limits and capacity of the medium. Each project is carefully picked to make sure that if they cannot complete it in time, we can work together to get it to a point where it appears to be finished. I also choose materials based on accessibility outside of the class. Not all will have access, but it is my hope that there will be one or two lessons they can take home with them and continue working in metal arts.

*To protect the student’s identity, their faces, names, and any other way to identify them is removed from this site.