The room was lined with long desks covered in wires, tools and chunks of disfigured metal in various states of creation.
Nearly everything in Taylor Fentz’s studio was made from some amount of metal. Whether she bent, twisted or melted and reformed it, creating with metal is her medium of choice.
Fentz says other artists will often gravitate towards a material that expresses them in some way. It was an idea she connected with.
“Metal’s just stubborn and hardheaded and just won’t give in,” Fentz said. “I just want to master it.”
Fentz sparked up a blowtorch, and then heated a small piece of metal until the surface blazed a dull red.
The colors progressively intensified as the flame seemed to slowly push a wave of the liquid metal down the length of the piece.
Once she was content with the results, Fentz quickly picked up the metal with a pair of pliers, and dropped it into a bowl of water. She immediately reached in and grabbed it with her bare hand.
The small piece of metal that had once been a dull, uninviting gray now showed a series of smooth textures rolling down the front of it.
After this, Fentz could continue working on this one piece or combine it with new materials and mold it into something different entirely.
“My own pieces are never done,” Fentz said. “I’m constantly taking things apart.”
Fentz said neither the process nor the stories that inspire her creations ever come to an end.
“I’ll make up a story in my head of a person, and this completely new world that they live in, and then I’ll make a piece they would wear,” Fentz said.
Fentz said the stories are the source for her creativity and inspiration, but she hopes people find their own meaning in her work.
Though she is rebuilding her online store, you can find Fentz’s portfolio here and Facebook here.
