Vancouver artist Stefanie Dueck<\/strong> would be the first to admit she\u2019s bucking convention. While many sculptors prefer to work in clay or plaster, Dueck works in steel and bronze. Her favorite tools are the hammer and anvil, a result of experiments with the more traditional medium. \u201cI did a lot of ceramics in high school. I really enjoyed the process but found it frustrating,\u201d she says of her early attempts with three-dimensional form. \u201cMost of the things I built would explode in the kiln.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Title:\u00a0Global Echo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Global Echo\u00a0Detail<\/strong><\/p>\n

She stumbled into metalwork almost by accident while enrolled in the Kootenay School of the Arts in the remote British Columbia mountain community of Nelson. \u201cIt kind of clicked in my head. All those things that did not work in clay worked in metal,\u201d she says.\u201d I was drawn to the structural nature of it, a mixture of industrial aesthetic and a refinement, almost opposites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baby Spoons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spice Spoons<\/strong><\/p>\n

She left Canada for Spain immediately after graduation and apprenticed with blacksmith Sebastian Fisher, an English ex-pat living in the Andalusian town of Caseras. She learned the craft, \u201cdoing what I was told,\u201d she says, picking up pointers and refining her creative process. Today, Dueck works out of a Vancouver warehouse which she shares with a steel fabricator, turning out distinctive yet functional flatware and equally distinctive sculpture.<\/p>\n

Cheese Knives<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trilobite Larva<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trilobite Larva Detail<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe nature of forging is that you take a chunk of metal and you actually move the metal. You\u2019re not just cutting and pasting, welding or bending, you\u2019re actually making a thick piece fat over here and thinner over here so it really gives you full lines. I work in lines as opposed to volume or surface design,\u201d she says of the process. \u201cNormally it begins with a long bar of steel or other metal and through hammering, the metal is displaced in\u00a0 various directions, flattened, stretched or twisted until the original dimensions are no longer apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hammering also makes the pieces texturaly interesting. You can see it in her ladles. Also note the copper or bronze rivets, especially in her salad servers. She likes using contrasting metals. \u201cI\u2019m not necessarily the most technical blacksmith out there but that\u2019s what I do, blacksmithing. That\u2019s the basis of my practice,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Serving Spoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Salad Servers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laddle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her early sculptures are light and playful, inspired by bugs and other insects and other creepy crawlies. \u00a0Dueck says she\u2019s moved away from her arthropod period to the more abstract and architectural, using photos she\u2019s taken in local shipyards as inspiration and naming them after cargo ships she\u2019s seen in Vancouver\u2019s harbour. Currently works in progress, her new sculptures will be unveiled soon. In the meantime, Dueck\u2019s always popular flatware is available through selected British Columbian craft stores and galleries.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Title: Second Skin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second Skin Detail<\/strong><\/p>\n

+\u00a0Stefanie Dueck<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

+\u00a0Sebastian Fisher<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vancouver artist Stefanie Dueck would be the first to admit she\u2019s bucking convention. While many sculptors prefer to work in clay or plaster, Dueck works in steel and bronze. Her favorite tools are the hammer and anvil, a result of experiments with the more traditional medium. \u201cI did a lot of ceramics in high school. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":45876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[6954,7786,2020,7787,7785],"yoast_head":"\n