I’ve been following this discussion about whether metalsmiths are
fabricating rather than casting, and I feel I need to weigh in here.
At the UCSD Craft Center, where I have been teaching jewelry making
for 20 years now, we fabricate in silver and gold, and lost-wax cast,
as well. I ask my students, most whom have never made a piece of
jewelry before, what it is that they are interested in making. My
class lasts 9 weeks, 2 1/2 hours a week, which is not a lot of time.
Time is quite important, and I feel most of my students want a
finished piece of jewelry at the end of that 9 weeks. I ask my
students to show me some kind of rough sketch or drawing of what they
want, a photograph, or a piece of jewelry they own that they like.
After I help them to design their own project, I help them determine
which method or methods of manufacture will be the fastest and most
manageable way to create their finished work. If a project can be
made using sheet and wire forms, then we make the wire and sheet in
our studio, and I help them create that piece. If the design they
want to make is just not possible to fabricate with sheet or wire,
much too dimensional or curvilinear, as an example, then I help them
carve a wax model and we cast the pieces needed. Some pieces need to
be fabricated, and some will need to be cast, and some will need
both. It all depends on the design.
So, I think personal jewelry is designed, ideally, in this way: You
envision what you want to create, then find the best methods to
create that piece. The more techniques that you can learn about, the
more your visual and metal-working “vocabulary” expands. The more
time you can devote to experimenting with new techniques and forms,
the more capable and efficient you become, and the easier and more
fluid the work becomes.
I do not understand how a comparison can be made between
fabrication and casting... To me this discussion is like having a
debate on whether using a rolling mill is better than forging to
produce sheet metal.
I don’t think anyone suggested that one method was better than the
other. I was however foolish enough to say that casting didn’t look
like much fun to me. As misguided as my comment may have been it was
only a statement of personal preference, not a judgement or
evaluation.
Frankly I doubt that anyone who aspires to make a wide range of
jewelry is going to get very far if they were to start making such
judgements. As you say, it’s all a matter of using the right technique
for the job at hand. I just happen to design and work in such a way
that my jobs lean heavily towards fabrication, so far.
As a person who does both fabrication and casting, I find that using
both techniques can be very freeing, creatively speaking. Sometimes
when I am having trouble with a design, I find that I’ve been
thinking of it solely in terms of one technique, and considering
using the other technique to produce it often produces an "Aha!"
moment.
When I used to teach metalsmithing, it was a class that was
originally titled “jewelry making”. I renamed it because I wanted to
broaden the concept beyond wearable or conventional jewelry to
include other accomplishments in metal. I always required my
students to learn a good deal of fabrication methods before I let
them venture into casting. The reason was essentially this: Casting
can be seductive for some students. As a means to and end, it appears
to yeild results more easily and directly. That is not necessarily
true. I wanted them to view casting as a set of alternatives within
the vocabulary of the traditional metalsmith. Casting or fabrication,
rather than and either/or consideration, should be integrated with
the sensibilities of good design and artistic goals, so that
whatever the chosen means to the end, functionality, aesthetics, and
self expression are sucessfully effected.
... If any of you have retail stores, and you make jewelry, you do
both
Very well said! I don’t have a retail store, I contract for them,
and so everything you said applies to my operation under even more
stringent considerations, since I have to keep my prices low enough
to allow my accounts to make an adequate margin and turn around times
a concern. Thank you for your concise and well considered
observations.
Casting can be seductive for some students. As a means to and end,
it appears to yeild results more easily and directly. That is not
necessarily true. I wanted them to view casting as a set of
alternatives within the vocabulary of the traditional metalsmith.
Casting or fabrication, rather than and either/or
consideration,…
Beautifully said David. My sentiments exactly!
Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple elegance IS
fine jewelry! Good to be back!
Our workshop hand fabricates most of our jewelry. Where it makes
sense to do so, we also employ casting.
For us, it is the finished product that is important. Fabrication and
casting represent a strategic, and synergistic set of efficiencies.
In my experience, the challenge is to create the correct balance of
these efficiencies to facilitate the best quality work at optimum
cost.
Michael Rogers
M. M. Rogers Design
Albuquerque, NM USA