The Late John Heller

Last year, John Heller gave a casting workshop at Metalwerx (see pix
of him at our web page). I first came to know John during the SNAG
conference in Boston. He seemed very jolly and approchable. I
learned that he gave casting workshops, and asked if he wouldn’t mind
giving one at Metalwerx. He agreed and thought it would be a great
idea. “How much do you charge?”, I asked. “Nothing” he said. He
went on to say, “I like what you are doing here at Metalwerx. Sharing
is an important element of what you do. The same is with
me. Let’s share some about casting.” And so he did.

A few days before his death, for some reason I pulled together some
postcards of his work and arranged them for maximum viewing in our
postcard gallery. His expressive and light touch with wax lent an
almost cosmic quality to his cast pieces. They were reminiscent of a
meteorite splash on the moon when I stared through my telescope at
night.

John was a teacher’s teacher and will be sorely missed.

-k