Category: Flux Metals

On Monday, I visited a foundry on Mare Street in Hackney. I showed up at 6.30am in rain! The dedication!! As I plead my case the first question I am asked is: You know it is very physical job? EW! The prejudice. But it is fine, because I also judged them! I didn’t like it there. The men in the workshops were stereotypically manly. I assume they wouldn’t have the care and patience that James has.

I do tell James about visiting other workshops. However, he wants me to stay at Flux. It feels nice. I think I will hold on and stay. I love it there.

A quick job of plasma cutting oil barrels! I had to add an internal structure and wheels. They will put fake fire in them. COOL! The drawings they sent us were drawn with a finger on a phone! CRAZY! So again, there was miscommunication and I had to edit it :/

I finished them all on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, James showed me how to weld aluminium! It is FUCKING HARD and annoying! The process is quite different. The welding machines have different settings specifically for aluminium! On that day, I had to make an A-board café sign. I cut the sheets of metal and bent them, but I wasn’t ready to weld it. James welded the hinges I made for it myself!

The next day, I had another aluminium job and I worked on it completely alone! WOW! I fucked up a couple of times, but I fixed all my mistakes, so the job took me forever and I couldn’t finish it! Damn it!
Next week I’ll be in Poland for my grandma’s 75th birthday! WEEEE!
I will only see a picture of it :c

It was a cross — like the one Jesus was crucified on. It gave me an idea for silly pictures, which James took of me at the end of the shift.

Another person I appreciate there is Charlie! He is very technical and proper. I like it. He seems to care that I do well. He teaches me a lot, too. Dude is only one year older than me! Shocking! I aspire to be like him as well!

First week working Monday to Friday! No more restaurant job!
On Tuesday, I finished the bench for Dracula! It is gothic and it was fun! I love welding! Watching the metal melt and then breaking the surface tension. I’m so obsessed I often overdo it. With welding, less is more — I know it, but the obsession is stronger. I want to keep melting and keep adding more metal. It makes me think of bees for some reason — how they puke and build with their little blobs of puke. I’m Maja the Bee! Puke, puke, puke with shiny, silver metal! It suits me — I wear only silver.

With that bench, I could go off! I was doing decorative welds. Little beads, hihi.

Thursday and Friday, I was working on more lanterns — for Hansel and Gretel! Cool, cool, cool!
On Friday morning, the man who ordered them said he didn’t like what I had been making. They didn’t give us proper drawings — more like reference pictures with “I like this… and I like that detail.” We clearly didn’t understand each other.
On Friday, James and I whipped out three new lanterns, which they liked — and the day was saved!

I like working with James! The conversations we have are like therapy. He is like my new dad! We talk about family, about processes, about art, movies, and music. Everything! I admire how much patience he has with us and how much trust he has in me. I want to be like him.

On Tuesday, I was working with James on brass lanterns! It was sheets of brass. Brass is difficult because it is toxic. The fumes burn my eyes and scratch my throat. And it stinks! Ewww… It was more difficult because the sheets of metal would warp and bend :/
But I was brazing it instead of welding — which I LOVE! Because it uses gas! It is lovely on a cold day. Really warms you up!
The lanterns are for A Christmas Carol! Cool!

On Wednesday, I overslept 😐 James was upset. I kept working on the lanterns.

On Thursday, I was given a small job making something that is supposed to hold two things apart. It looks like a very long “H”. Then I started making a small bench — another prop.

I like that I am given more work and that I get to work more and more independently. I am realising how dependent and scared of making mistakes I am.

On Tuesday, I met with Vincent from Ferrum to discuss my next placement. I don’t want to work there. He was lovely, but the workshop is smaller and doesn’t have a foundry, which I was under the impression it did.

On Wednesday, I finally finished painting the mammoth sculpture. Cool.

On Thursday, I made two planters. That was a job I worked on by myself! I asked a lot of questions, and Charlie, one of my coworkers, supervised me closely. But it’s cool! I was using a massive machine that bends sheets of metal. That one is quite tricky to use because it’s old!

Through that process, I taught myself that there is an art to doing things very accurately. Designing and determining measurements and angles is one thing, and being able to fabricate them is another. Thank god for big machines that you can set accurately and repeat the same action many times.
Even though it was an easy project, I still made mistakes… :/ I was the only one mad at myself, though.

This week I felt better because I determined what I want: to quit my restaurant job and learn more about casting and mould making. Now I just need to get myself there.

I continued working on the mammoth. Everyone likes it! I, however, am not impressed… It feels like a small job. I finished building the mammoth on Wednesday and started working on a tree for the background. On that day, I saw my coworker injure himself with a lathe. His hand was pulled in. He said he was okay, but left shortly after. Later, we learned that his wrist was fractured (if I remember correctly).

On Thursday, I needed to paint it. I didn’t manage to finish that job. I don’t like to paint, and I think it would’ve looked better without paint.

That week, we had some extra hands in the workshop. There was James’s son, organising the workshop. I liked chatting to them. They are cool, and just like James, warm, kind, and patient. <3
And there was an intern from Plymouth, Isabel — also a very cool person. She was working on another small sculpture that would be used in the same art walk.

Week 4

I finished off the gurneys with Ben. I didn’t like working with him. He slowed everything down, whereas I wanted it done quickly. He was right to do it slowly.

On Wednesday, James started showing me how to use a gas torch — gas welding and cutting. I enjoyed it a lot. It is relaxing and whimsical! Since I don’t have to wear a full mask to weld, I can wear only welding glasses. All the sparks look green, and they are slower, which is absolutely beautiful.
On that day, I was set to work on a small sculpture to commemorate the excavation of a woolly mammoth in South London (in 1898). It is nice to mark the history.

On Thursday, I continued to practise gas welding. I like working with James the most. We talk about various things. On that day, my coworker was assigned to clean the workshop, and for some reason, he expected me to help him(?). I did help him with things that needed two people to move, but then I went back to James and my mammoth. The coworker was pissy about that. 😐 wtf?

Week 3

On Tuesday, I called in sick. On Wednesday, I made one wheel for the gurneys. It took me ages because I was hesitant, as I had made mistakes in the past. However, I made the remaining wheels (9!) on Thursday. My arms were hurting a lot. On Friday, I decided to visit the V&A to see the Iron Works. I hoped to get inspired. I didn’t…

Straight up, I got a lot of work! I made wheels for a gurney bed, a prop for a theatre.

On Tuesday, I stayed late because James let me work on my bike. I like to cycle and listen to music, so I made something that would make my setup faster.

It was a complete fail. I don’t know bikes well, so I unscrewed the wrong thing, and I lost a lot of ball bearings. James brought up the saying: to loose ones bearings. Jokes! I am lost. (I had to have it fixed) Then it resonates too much, the metal buzzing is louder than the actual music 😐 I tried resolving this with some rubber tape and a magnet, but the base is too powerful.

I kept helping with a sculpture of the BIG HAND! On Wednesday, I fucked up big time. I was asked to cut steel square beams for a frame that would be used to transport a big prop between floors. and I don’t know how I cut all of the beams 1 cm too short… We had to deal with that on Thursday and weld them with 5mm gap which was more challenging and time consuming. On top of that the delivery driver was waiting for us outside to finish, adding even more pressure.

Even though my work leaves much to be desired, James is happy with me! (Surprisingly!) He said that he would like to pay me and that he is going to talk to his accountant about that. SWEET!

Outside of the placement, I have been talking with my housemates about jobs. They are creatives with more work and life experience (they are old) and they are saying that all they do is to “buy more time” time to travel, time to rest, time to work on their interests. I guess everyone is doing that. But one thing they are definitely right about is that in customer service I am wasting my time. There I can not improve nor work on my stuff. I am solely working for others: for customers and for my boss. I am not benefiting from it. I am just surviving on MINIMUM wage. At a workshop I can at least work on things that I can benefit from: financially or mentally. The issue is: what am I trying to make? And can I survive from it?

Flux Metals, run by James Garner, specialises in theatre props and art sculptures. They are a fun bunch! I really liked getting to know everyone during a mandatory tea break (twice a day!)

Starting on the 29th, I was quickly put to work. James gave me some practice welding to do. Then he showed me how to you a LATHE. I FACED OFF a rod and drilled a hole in it: it will serve as the centre of a wheel to put through an axis. 

I also cut more rods and bent them using a form. Those rings will be used in the construction of a sculpture (of a massive hand).