Multiples & manufacturing

I went to an interesting couple of talks on Monday night at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney which were organised by JMGA-NSW – primarily as a carrot to entice members come along to learn more about an awarded exhibition that the organisation is planning to hold later this year.

The first speaker was Brenda Factor, an artist and maker with a background in jewellery and metal. Brenda is also one of my fellow JMGA-NSW Committee Members. View an example of Brenda’s work.

Brenda spoke about the evolution of her work, encompassing wearables through to large scale sculptural pieces (which, as she pointed out, can still be packed up to fit inside a small box).

One of the key points which came from Brenda’s talk and which particularly interested me is her obsession with creating multiples and how this has evolved over the years.

Previously she had dealt a lot with commercial manufacturers to help her create multiples using techniques such as laser etching. However, in recent years she’s moved away from this and while her multiples obsession continues, she now undertakes this work primarily by hand. This results in multiples of items which all have subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – variations.

The second speaker was Oliver Smith and I was particularly pleased to hear him speak as our paths had previously crossed, but in a way he’s most likely completely unaware of.

A few months back I was sitting in my local cafe doing some work when I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation a couple of seats away with someone who was clearly a contemporary metalsmith. Obviously this doesn’t happen every day, so I kept listening in, especially when it dawned on me that the conversation was in fact an interview which would be appearing in a magazine I read anyway! Eventually I realised it was Oliver Smith and I had an urge to go an say hello and pick his brain about a few things … but I politely sat in my corner and kept working instead!

Oliver very much works as a metalsmith rather than a jewellery maker, using traditional forging techniques to create items such as cutlery, bowls, etc.. In fact, items relating to food are a particular focus of Oliver’s work. You learn more about Oliver and see some examples of his work here.

Although their making practices are enormously different, like Brenda, I think it’s fair to say that Oliver is also interested in creating multiples in his work. However, while he still clearly does a lot of work by hand, Oliver seems to be embracing the idea of working closely with industry and using commercial processes to have multiples of his work made.

I was particularly interested to hear about his involvement with having his cutlery cast in stainless steel, as it’s something I have thought about myself. Oliver described the process whereby a ceramic able to withstand incredibly high temperatures is used in a similar way to the investment utilised when lost wax casting items in precious metals (which have a much cooler melting temperature than steel).

It was also interesting to note from Oliver’s slides the very different finishes of a handmade silver spoon to the same spoon which has been cast in stainless steel, with the steel having a much more muted finish that the bright silver.

Having made some cutlery myself which I’d love to revisit with a view to possibly putting into production one day, this is something I was very pleased to learn a bit more about – even if only briefly.

The hand that feeds by Simone Walsh, sterling silver, 1999

So both speakers gave me some food for thought particularly about issues to do with multiples and methods of manufacture. Of course I do make multiples of the jewellery I sell in my Etsy jewelry shop and other places, but for the most part they are entirely made by hand, so as with Brenda’s artworks, each of the pieces varies slightly from every other I’ve made in the same design.

As I’ve written previously, this is something I’ve come to love about what I do – and even enjoy pushing to a degree to emphasise the handmade nature of the work.

However, I have also been thinking a lot about the possibilities of putting some aspects of my work into larger scale production and what would be involved with doing so. To someone coming at jewellery making and metalsmithing from a visual arts background (as opposed to a trade jewellery background), the idea of working with industry and even of figuring out which type of industry you need can be very daunting.

And as both Oliver and Brenda pointed out, doing so can make some aspects of making much easier, while other aspects suddenly get more difficult. It’s also certainly not something that takes the soul out of what you make as some people imagine – especially as many commercial manufacturing techniques still require a lot of handmaking and other work both prior to and after the manufacturing stage is complete.

For instance, the hand cutlery pieces above were made by having the end pieces cast in sterling silver. In this case I actually did the casting myself as I had access to the equipment at the time, but these days I always get my casting done commercially – they do a better job than I could and it is a lot less stressful!

However, the shaped hands were handcarved by me in wax – a very labour-intensive process requiring a lot of concentration and an eye for detail. Also when the pieces came out of the casting process in sterling silver, they still required an enormous amount of cleaning up to bring them to the smooth, shiny finish you see in the photograph. Additionally the handles needed to be made by hand and soldered to the tops of the cutlery.

As you can see, the idea that casting is somehow as easy as photocopying is completely untrue!

So, yes, ideas about multiples, manufacturing and the handmade are things I am left pondering, particularly as of late I’ve come to really enjoy some of the aspects of making by hand which I used to either dislike or be ambivalent about – such as saw piercing – while at the same time I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make better use of industrial processes.