There are many ways to create art. For many, their introduction to the craft involved paper and crayons. No one could forget the experience they had in preschool when teachers would just hand them the materials and let their imagination go wild. As you grew up, you discovered pencils and watercolor, and then you transitioned to using a proper canvas with several tubes of oil paint at your disposal. Later on, you started experimenting with other materials and equipment such an etching machine. This will let you make drawings on surfaces other than paper, such as wood and acrylic.
Art can go beyond making two-dimensional images. You also have sculptures that take things into three dimensions. Clay is a popular material to work with, but you can use other ones too. A stand out among them is metal because of how challenging it is to handle. Despite that, you can make various art pieces with it.
Etching and Engraving
You may wonder what the difference between etching and engraving metal is. The simple answer is that etching uses chemicals to distort the surface of a metal, while engraving has you physically manipulating it, like bending or scratching. Both are common ways to customize items such as plaques and pens, and a lot of them use precision machines that let you carve out intricate and detailed images. Some of the machines even utilize lasers so that they can be accurate down to a hair. If you have ever wondered how they carved small cursive letters onto the side of a ring, this is your answer.
Sculpture
There are different types of metal, and there are a lot of ways to create sculptures out of them. There are creative people who you can consider as advocates of recycling because they can make beautiful creations out of scrap items such as old utensils and tin cans. The malleable ones like copper are easier to handle, enabling you to make complex creations like the detailed busts of historical personalities. The heavier metals are near impossible to bend or manipulate with bare hands, but artists can still create geometric masterpieces out of them.
Swordsmithing
Swords used to be the weapon of choice for battles way back when. But there have been more efficient and practical options that have cropped up throughout the course of history, but people still admire the blades for how they display artisanship. A swordsmith should have the strength of a warrior and patience of a saint.
Making a sword involves being close to the heat of a furnace and a lot of mallet pounding. After cooling it down you then have to run it along the grinder to refine its shape further. It will then go into another heat treatment, this time to reinforce it and make it shiny. Finish it off by bolting on the hilt, which can be artwork itself.
Metal is known to be a material used in industrial or engineering purposes. It has enough versatility to compete in the art space. So if you are an aspiring artist, do not count it out. If you get adept at handling it, you could be the next person to create its next masterpiece.
