Ok so I just attended an AMAZING lecture last night on blacksmith Tom Joyce who I'd like to talk about, which got me thinking about how I'm going to do this blog. I think once a month, in between talking about my own work, I'm going to talk about different metals/jewelry artists.

On that note....Tom Joyce!


This is Tom Joyce...he's been a blacksmith since he was 14! That's crazy considering I didn't even know what I wanted to do until I was 19. He grew up in Mexico which is where he learned blacksmithing. He started off making tools and gates and later went on to sculpture. During the lecture we got to watch this great video of him getting to work in an iron factory where he used their scrap and machinery to create his sculptures. This video was one of the craziest things I have ever seen! He mentioned during the lecture that iron was like clay, and that anything he could make out of clay he could make out of iron, it's hard to believe until you see it. In the video a man operated machine moved around a red hot cube of iron while Tom directed it from the side. The cube was placed in a press where it was squished down and quished together with other iron cubes, just like clay! As a metalsmith I know how malleable metal can be, but this was a whole nother level for me. Here are some pictures of final sculptures he has created.







I was really blown away by this lecture and it's artists like this that inspire me to never want to stop creating. One of the issues I struggle with is how I'll manage to pay the bills and create work, especially as a young artist. I guess figuring this all out will just come with time.