Metal Artwork Welds Creativity

Happy Wednesday Friends!

This week I was inspired by my welder boyfriend to show all of you some metal artwork.

I’ve done a bit of welding and metal work myself in school. I took stagecraft which required me to try welding, and a sculpture class that inspired me to try brazing with copper tubing.

Metal working is kind of a nerve-wracking process at first, especially because fire is involved. The process is a lot more scary than it looks though.

Nonetheless, I’m not here to tell you completely about how welding works. However, I’d like to introduce some of the different ways metal can be welded. I think that it’s interesting information regardless of the uses.

MIG Welding

Starting off there is GMAW/MIG welding. GMAW stands for “Gas Metal Arc Welding”. This style’s electrode is a thin wire, heating up while passing through the welding tip.

This process needs shielding gas to protect the weld from contaminants. The gas could be oxygen, argon, helium, or carbon dioxide.

The metal being welded is also changeable. It could be used on stainless steel, copper, nickel, aluminum, carbon steel, and many more. This method is often the most commonly used across industries.

TIG Welding

Next method is Tungsten Inert Gas, aka TIG welding. This method is oftentimes used on thinner, non-ferrous metal materials. Those would be aluminum, lead, copper, and nickel.

The electrode for this process is a non-consumable tungsten which will produce the weld, still requires an external gas supply such as argon or argon mixed with helium.

TIG welding is considered one of the hardest welding techniques, but the welds on the metal are usually very high quality.

SMAW Welding

The final method I’d like to talk about is Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW). Relying on a a consumable electrode coated in lux, SMAW is a manual technique type of welding.

Typically it’s informally known as stick welding. The electrode is in the form of a “stick”.

This method doesn’t always produce the highest quality weld, but it is one of the cheapest methods and doesn’t require a shielding gas. This makes it popular among smaller businesses or for home use.

There are a couple more methods described here if interested, but I’m mainly an art blog so let’s get into the cool stuff people can create using these techniques.

The Art is in the Metal

I wasn’t too sure about this idea at first, but then I got to doing my research. It’s honestly incredible what people can do with metal.

One thing I’ve loved exploring while finding research is the different styles that each person seems to have. Many are sculptural, much like this piece by Loris Farolfi titled “I LOVE YOU BABY”.

I’ve also noticed that none of these artists let material go to waste, in fact a lot of them only use recycled metal.

This sculpture here by Stihiy Metal is made out of entirely recycled materials.

Artistic style is one of the main things that separate artists from another, metal art is no different in this. I’ve compiled some various artistic styles for you to see, but I encourage you to go explore this world yourself.

 

Metal work can be long, hard, and hot, but one thing is for sure; It all pays off in the end

Let me know if you enjoyed this post or want to see more like this! And don’t forget to check out our social media pages!

See you next time!

~Toodles