Metal artist Lynda Metcalfe works in two areas, blacksmithing and jewelry. Her ironwork is mainly commissioned furniture, lighting and railings. Her jewelry features a hot fused metal technique called mokume gane that begins in the blacksmith shop and she sells this work through arts shows and mail order. Says Lynda about her approach to metalwork:“I chose to study 3-D Design specializing in metals at WSCAD in Farnham, Surrey, England for my undergraduate degree. For some reason the idea of ‘normal’ was anathema to me – if I was going to study metals it was not going to be girly jewelry, I wanted to make big stuff. So I presented a final show of designs a structural engineer would be proud of and set off to work for artist blacksmith Charles Normandale.
“Some years down the line, I made some jewelry with damascus which set the seed. A short while later the prospect of learning how to make mokume gane presented itself. Wow, that hits all the right notes – playing with fire, forging, getting dirty and making cool stuff – but heck, it’s small – so I have to keep being a blacksmith too. So there you have it. I cannot choose, I have tried, so I do both blacksmithing & jewelry.”
