Magnificent Metal

As we know, artists use lots of different mediums.  Do you remember what an artistic medium is?

Some artists use metal to build and sculpt and others  use metal to show off their drawing skills!  Let's find out how that is even possible.

Metal embossing and Repousse push and move the metal using tools to imprint marks and designs  onto the surface. (what's the surface?)  Embossing presses lines and patterns into the front side of the metal. While Repousse pushes the metal from the back raising up the design.  The metal can also be worked between the created lines to raise areas of the metal.  

Artists around the world work with metal and metal tooling is created most often in tin, copper and aluminum.  In Mexico there is a folk art tradition of making tin ornaments.

Repujado which is the metal tooling art. Hojalata means tin artwork in Spanish.  The metal is malleable which makes it easy to create details in the surface.  What does malleable mean?

Mexican Folk Artisans shape, stamp, punch cut and paint metal into decorative and sometimes functional art.  It's popular and inexpensive and the shiny surface is part of the quality.

You may choose to make a metal embossed ornament and if you don't we will still add the process to our creativity bank account.

Place a piece of cardboard on your table. The metal needs a soft surface to press into.

You can sketch a design in pencil onto the metal or start drawing with a stylus.  

Patterns with short lines will be easier to draw into the metal. If you are making longer or curved lines slow down the metal is slick and the stylus can slip and wobble. (turn mistakes into a beautiful oops)

Draw with a wooden stylus.  Go over the pencil lines while firmly pressing into the metal surface. 

Draw on the front.  More lines  will create more visual interest.  Press lines into the front, press lines into the back and repeat back and forth from front to back.

Embellish with colorful sharpies, beads and ribbon

El Anatsui-- turning waste into art

El Anatsui

El Anatsui (born 1944) is a sculptor from Ghana.  He has spent much of his career in Nigeria (a country in West Africa) where he is an artist and professor at a local college.

He has recently become popular around the world for his recycled "bottle-top installations".  

Inspired by the growing waste from things humans use  such as metal cans and bottle tops.  West Africa, where El Anatsui lives, has limited recycling technology.  Think about in what ways you notice waste around us at school, our home, our city, our country.

His materials are gathered from recycling stations and sewn together with copper wire, which are then transformed into metallic cloth-like wall sculptures resembling large pieces of shiny fabric.

“Individually, caps don’t have much to say but together they have a voice.” 

Such materials, while seemingly stiff and sturdy, are actually free and flexible, which often helps with manipulation when installing his sculptures.

His art makes us think about "...consumption-the things we use, the garbage we create, and the environment".

In his studio, he works with teams of assistants--sometimes as many as 40-50 at a time-- to crush, crumple, twist, flatten, bend and fold these discarded items and then thread and bind them with copper wire.

Often times when artist start to become famous, they have to get help completing pieces. They can’t keep up with the demand of their work and need others to help execute their vision.  

Once his art arrives at a museum, El Anatsui allows the museum to decide how to hang these large metal artworks.  Usually they look similar to this. 

Maybe you will get a chance to visit the art of El Anatsui here in our St. Louis Art Museum.  The St. Louis Art Museum is in Forest Park. One of the best parts is that it's free to see all the art on exhibit.

Will your art help bring attention to the amount of waste people and companies make?

Will you use recycled materials in your art?

Will you work with metal to create your idea?

Your Turn

Maybe you will create with wire and bottle caps.  Use a hand drill to make holes in the cap (use cardboard or your art book underneath what you are drilling).   Wire cutters to cut and pliers to bend the wire.

Or maybe you will work with metal by embossing metal with metal tools. Metal tooling, also called “repousse” and “metal embossing” is a type of low-relief sculpture in which tools are used to create a design on metal.  

Center a piece of cardboard onto a sheet of metal.  Carefully fold over all 4 sides and press 

Use popsicle sticks and wooden stylus to emboss aluminum 

add color with Sharpie.  

Metal is not porous.  The ink will not soak in and dry like it does on paper so a permanent marker is the right tool for the job.

CAUTION.  METAL Edges are SHARP!