Category: Iron

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Spring Short Session Iron

Iron – Spring Short Session
April 27 – May 2, 2025 (4 studio days)
Hoss Haley
The Everyday Shelf

This workshop will focus on designing and fabricating metal shelves to hold the items one carries with them on a daily basis: phone, keys, glasses, etc. We will begin with demonstrations and explanations of a range of cold-connection techniques: tabs, screws, and rivets. Students will then work through the design process using paper and cardboard. The last two days will be devoted to cold-forming through cutting, bending, and shaping the sheet metal followed by final assembly and surface treatments. All levels. 

Studio artist; teaching: Haystack (ME), Penland; major public art commissions in Asheville (NC), Charlotte (NC), Richmond (VA), Atlanta, Western Carolina University (NC), North Carolina State University, Tennessee Tech University; collections: Asheville Art Museum (NC), North Carolina Museum of Art, Mint Museum (NC), Bechtler Museum of Art (NC), Arkansas Museum of Fine Art, John Michael Kohler Art Center (WI).

hosshaley.com | @hosshaley

Scholarship application deadline is August 15.
Regular enrollment begins October 2.

Hoss Haley, Everyday Shelf, steel, paint
Hoss Haley, Everyday Shelf, steel, paint
Photo by Myles Pettengill
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Iron Spring Concentration

Iron – Spring Concentration
March 2 – April 25, 2025 (8 Weeks)
Erica Moody
Balancing the Spoon:
Metal Craft and Studio Practice

With utensil making as the framework, students will learn the foundations of mid-sized metalsmithing and will explore how our craft can foster play and awareness of our surroundings. Through demonstrations and experimentation (with optional prompts), students will design and realize their own eating and/or serving utensils, which may be entirely practical or purely sculptural. We will work with raw materials and repurposed utensils, consider individual as well as batch production, collaborate, and discuss balancing life and a craft business. Using mostly brass, copper, and steel, instruction will include cold and hot forming (forging, sanding, cutting, sinking; hand hammering only), cold and hot connections (riveting, wrapping, silver soldering/brazing), finishing (sanding, hand filing/white smithing, texturing, coloring, burnishing), and combining different materials (wood, bone, scrap metal, etc.). The workshop aims to use this nice, long time frame to both upset and balance our practices as we inspire and support each other. All levels. 

Studio artist crafting serving utensils and custom hardware; teaching: Peters Valley (NJ), Haystack (ME), Center for Metal Arts (PA), Pocosin (NC), Center for Furniture Craftsmanship (ME), Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Harvard Graduate School of Design (MA); 2023 Maine Arts Fellowship; short-term residencies: Penland, Haystack. 

ericamoody.com | @ericaemoody

Regular enrollment begins October 2.

 

Erica Moody, Pressed Brass Moon and Ring Utensils, brass, charred maple, 12 inches long
Erica Moody, Pressed Brass Moon and Ring Utensils, brass, charred maple, 12 inches long
moody-portrait
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Iron Fall Concentration

IRON – FALL CONCENTRATION
SEPTEMBER 29 – NOVEMBER 8, 2024 (6 weeks)
James (Coop) Cooper
Moving and Shaping Iron

This workshop will explore the plasticity of iron. Forging at the anvil and using machines, we will employ basic forging techniques to create simple and complex sculptural objects. We will begin with simple exercises, developing a vocabulary and an understanding of how iron moves under the hammer. As confidence increases, we will explore form and volume, developing ideas into designs. 

Students will be encouraged to incorporate natural materials, such as stone or wood, with a thought toward physical and visual balance. Expect field trips to the scrap yard and into the forest in search of materials and inspiration. We will explore color through paint, patina, tinted waxes, and vitreous enamels. There will be regular demonstrations and individual instruction throughout the workshop. Forging iron is physically demanding; please come with a desire to work hard and a playful spirit. All levels. 

Studio artist; former artist-in-residence and conservator at The Metal Museum (TN); teaching: The Metal Museum (TN), Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), Penland; public art: City Center Park (NC), Birmingham Botanical Garden (AL), Emory Children’s Hospital (Atlanta), Wildacres Retreat (NC); galleries: Penland Gallery, Mica Gallery (NC). 

cricketscove.net | @cricketsforge

James (Coop) Cooper, Iron Orchids, iron, paint, 24 x 9 × 9 inches
James (Coop) Cooper, Iron Orchids, iron, paint, 24 x 9 × 9 inches
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Fall Short Session Iron

IRON – FALL SHORT SESSION
SEPTEMBER 22 – 27, 2024 (4 STUDIO DAYS) 
Susan Madacsi
Paper to Fire: Forged Botanicals

Using paper as a design and problem-solving tool, students will learn to translate the natural world into forged steel. We will start by gathering botanical objects that carry aesthetic intrigue. Then we will make paper patterns inspired by these gatherings and use various tools to cut sheet, thin plate, and angle iron and create leaves, petals, stems, etc. We will cover the transition from a flat plane to volumetric form through folding, creasing, and rolling metal while it is in a malleable state. Forging techniques and different hammer styles will create surface texture. I will also demonstrate a variety of finishing techniques that use color. Students will return home with samples, patterns to work with in their own studios, and a finished piece. All levels. 

Studio artist; teaching: Campbell Folk School (NC), New England School of Metalwork (ME), Brookfield (CT), The Steel Yard (RI); exhibitions: Seattle Art Fair (WA), 1st International Biennale (Braga, Portugal), Bellevue Arts Museum (WA), Metal Museum (TN), Fuller Craft Museum (MA), Smithsonian Craft Show (DC), Philadelphia Museum Craft Show, David Lusk Gallery (TN); residencies: Ferro (Germany), Vermont Studio Center. 

madacsistudios.com | @smadacsi

Susan Madacsi, Tulips for Steven, forged and fabricated steel, paints, wax, 26 x 13 x 2 inches
Susan Madacsi, Tulips for Steven, forged and fabricated steel, paints, wax, 26 x 13 x 2 inches