Jaclyn Davidson is not a welder, but she does work with metal and solders some amazing jewelry. She started out working with gold, but for the last ten years she has been working with weathered carbon steel, turning it into jewelry that is showcased in the Smithsonian and the Museum of Art and Design (MAD). Her work has received “best of show” in venues along the east coast, including the Philadelphia Craft Show in 2005. My work received the Verdura prize in 2007. She is represented by Charon Kranson at SOFA.
“My work uses the most rusted beautiful carbon steel there is in the junk yard and it is worn to places of high esteem,” Jaclyn says.
Jaclyn says her attraction to metals began when she was in university. “The steel thing happened many years after I was selling gold jewelry,” she says, when she had the opportunity to be involved in a steel fabricating shop. “The ease of moving hot steel and the many facets of its personality were so different from pervious metals.” And she fell in love: “Big huge in the falling in love with carbon steel was its perceived non importance….one could work with it and not in any way worry about the cost. This was really important for me.”
Then she got interested in the highly textured property of weathered steel.
“So wonderful and so individual….it was a joy to work with and then sand blast, finish and see, feel its beautiful weathered skin.”
What advice would you give your 15 year old self?:
Get into carbon steel earlier.
What advice would you give young women interested in welding as a career?:
Be a designer and don’t smoke or drink
If you’d like to see more of Jaclyn Davidson’s amazing metal work, visit her website.