Crawl around the neighborhood and stop in and see new featured functional, conceptual, wearable works from notable Metal Arts Guild members! This month we will host the 60th anniversary party and celebration of the Metal Arts Guild, and in honor will be exhibiting awe-striking new work from talented and notable folks we know you’ll be just as excited about as we are! This special night is not to miss!
Join us for the 57th Annual North Beach Festival and a historic look back to the Upper Grant Ave Street Fair from which it (and every other street fair in the US) grew.
June 18 and 19, 2011 . 10 am to 6 pm . FREE!
“The North Beach Festival, started by a committee that included renowned sculptor and metal artist Peter Macchiarini, began as the Upper Grant Avenue Street Fair and is the oldest urban street fair in the United States.”
Dive deeper into our history and the history of street fairs in general in this fascinating article by S. Reynolds in Northside San Francisco Magazine!
This weekend we will be showing original photographs of the Upper Grant Avenue Street Fair from way back when, and the committee who made it all happen! Come satiate your thirsts for history and join us in paying homage to Peter Macchiarini and the folks who worked so hard to give us this great tradition!
We are mesmerized by one particular photograph taken by THE Joe Rosenthal! It is hauntingly breathtaking. We hope you might come by to see it and the rest of our collection in person!
Join us again this Friday for another round of First Friday’s in North Beach! All the neighborhood becomes a-flutter with art loving folk who stroll the local sprawl of galleries, young and old! It’s a fantastic time to see the new pieces we’ve been working on, to get a sneeky peak of the shop in the back or to have a glass of wine and socialize with your neighbors. Come out! We’d love to see you there.
Friday June 3rd 6-9pm
In 2010, six team members from the our shop refurbished the Dragon Smelter from the inside out. With an unmentionably long list of upgrades including her new lights, claws, and head constructed from a salvaged oil barrel with saw blades for eyelashes, the smelter team took our lady Dragon to the playa so she could breath her fire into desert nights, at Burning Man 2010, Metropolis.
The Dragon Smelter blows her fiery breath!
We worked in the sun and the dust with the crowds, to explore and redefine notions of value. We poured large relief sculpture coins from recycled aluminum cans at multiple live casting events, while miniature versions of the coin were smelted by participants with our supervision and assistance, and given away and at our sideshow, a travelling minting pour and press!
This year, we’ve been invited back as artists for Burning Man 2011: Rite of Passage! Emma has designed a brand new coin, sculpted in collaboration with Dan. Here’s the sculpture in preparation to be molded!
Rite of Passage- Heads
Inspiration came from this:
“An oriental symbol of the soul’s pilgrimage through life: the souls climb up the four belts of the world, or elements, to its purification, win through from darkness to light.”
This year we’re expanding and improving and are really looking forward to what adventures the playa and our dragon will bring! If you’re interested in joining our team or know someone who might be, please contact us for more information!
Read about it here in the SF Weekly.
