adventures (in scale) in metal

My recent posting about J. Fred Woell has been quite a popular draw to the blog lately, and I have recieved many sweet emails from his fans. (Thanks everyone--I'm happy to spread the word and love hearing it's appreciated.) One of them was Kari Woo, a metalsmith who assisted his workshop at Haystack one year and has the exact same two pieces of Fred memorabilia that I blogged about. After writing back and forth a little, she told me about one of her past projects that I immediately deemed "blogworthy"--she received a public art commission in which she enlarged one of her ring designs into a larger permanent outdoor piece. I am always brainstoming about how I can translate my work into outdoor sculptures, so I love seeing others come up with their own creative solutions.

This morning on the HOW blog, I found a really interesting entry that seemed to pair well with Kari Woo's big and little theme--the new designs have been revealed for the British coins, designed by 26-year old Matthew Dent in a national competition. He took the Shield of the Royal arms, split the image into separate elements, and distributed the parts among the seven metal coins.
Separately, they are graphically bold and evoke both modern and traditional aesthetics. You can also arrange them together into the crest, mentally filling in the gaps. Don't even get me started about our ugly money over here in the US.....maybe when Obama is in office, we'll see some changes in that department??? I certainly hope that the economy is a priority for the next administration!