susan’s story ... Fresh out of highschool in Kitchener Ontario, 1973, I answered a silversmith’s help-wanted ad in the Auckland NZ newspaper. Imagining an elderly man with a wondrous array of tools and failing eyesight in need of a young assistant, I found instead a peace corps hippie with a few funky tools and a little business making signs of the zodiac. I got lots of practice bending and snipping and filing. Back in Canada, the following year I set up on my own, learning from the few books I could find and with lots of anxious experimentation. Off and on for the next twenty years I enjoyed making jewelry part-time. Then, in the mid-90’s, I developed severe repetitive strain, and I had to give up all my manual loves, including silversmithing ... Around 2005 I heard rumours of sintering, a gentler way of working in gold and silver, and my life in metals began anew. Powder metallurgy has been around since the days of the Incas, but was practised by only a very few contemporary jewellers until ‘Precious Metal Clay’ was developed and marketed by Mitubishi of Japan. Working with this material, little by little my hands have healed. Gradually I’m able to bring my old silversmithing knowledge to the finishing stages of the work, for once the metal ‘clay’ is fired and sintered, all the more traditional techniques become useful again. My life in metals is much different from when I began 35 years ago. In addition to the newly-available sintering technology, there’s a much broader selection of tools and supplies, and a greater generosity in the sharing of know-how. The biggest change is in my relationship with the work: more and more, it is all about interacting with the behavior of the materials themselves. Growing textures with yeast on moistened metal clay, investigating how metal clays behave when the extruder is intruded, and testing how different metal powders interact at high temperatures, I have never before felt such passion for my work!
Susan Ellenton The Story ...




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