​Title:        Heron
Medium:  Steel, Brass, Copper
Size:        38” tall
 
This work is made up of various metals welded together. I am a primitive when it comes to the mastery of welding, but it is certainly a fascinating method to play with. I use acetylene/oxygen welding equipment.  Although a good weld is quite straight forward, the process brings with it all sorts of possibilities. Besides welding metal forms together in gravity defying ways, metals can also be melted or braised onto each other using various metal types of braising rods. I use a lot of brass rodding or silver to braise and/or top the metal. Even heating the surface of metals, can bring out certain colourations out onto the surface.  
 
As well, all metals have strength characteristics, depending on their thickness, and molecular makeup.  So  a ¼”thick bar of copper, being a fairly soft metal, can be hammered, bent, thinned etc. at a fairly low heating point, whereas a  ¼” brass bar is a very rigid metal and needs  very high temperatures to be malleable enough to bend slightly without breaking. 2007