Thursday 12 December 2024
09:30am - 13:30pm
STEAMhouse, Belmont Works, Cardigan St, Birmingham B4 7RQ
Connect with the natural world through making with metal.
Connect with the natural world by making with metal! We’ll help you draw your attention to and refocus on the natural world, through making. We’ll guide you to delicately press natural matter into metal, to create metal that matters. Employing principles outlined in A.R.T. (Attention Restoration Theory*) you’ll be directed, first via a nearby green space, to connect to the location and integrate the essence of the place into their piece.
Learn from our expert Greg how to emboss metal (aluminium, copper and brass) utilising natural fibres and a jewellers’ rolling mill. The process requires the metal to be annealed (a means of softening the metal using heat), cleaned and dried before being passed, (under pressure), through metal rollers, along with various natural materials to produce an appealing textured surface, in a deliberate and focussed manner.
In this session you’ll:
· Learn how to measure & cut sheet copper and aluminium.
· Learn how to emboss sheet metal.
· Learn how to drill sheet metal.
· Learn how to produce ‘jump rings’ to join metal.
Working in a safe space, participants will become more confident at working with their hands and become acquainted with the physical and aesthetic properties of non-ferrous metal and its potential as a creative medium.
*The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. S. Kaplan
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0272494495900012
Your Facilitator
Greg’s employment and educational background in making/material manipulation, has equipped him with many practical skills and knowledge of production processes. Greg is our Senior Technician in the STEAMhouse maker space, and has been employed, on and off, as a creative workshop technician for nearly two decades and, as a result, has a breadth of experience in facilitating making and creating in a safe and sympathetic manner. He is also a qualified and experienced researcher, achieving a Masters in Fine Art and a PhD in Landscape Studies. Finally, when he’s not looking for new ways to join stuff together, he’s looking at bicycle building tech. walking at weekends, riding his bikes and sampling craft/cask beers.
The UKSPF fund is managed via Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus. Application forms are now open to all Birmingham and Solihull businesses to innovation, collaborate and grow via this link.
