Storytelling can come in so many different forms. To Crys Harse, story telling is a three dimensional endeavour involving texture and metals.
Stepping into Crys's workshop evokes a diverse set of emotions. Many pieces of her art line shelves along walls, and each piece holds true to the idea of story telling. At first glance, they are visually interesting. At long glance, a story pops out.
"I want people to really look at the art and see something else and make their own story out of it," explained Crys.
"The story that I have may not be the story that they have. It is really all about stories."
In addition to the intricacy of the stories being told is the unique medium in which they are presented in.
"I consider myself to be a metalsmith," said Crys.
"I work with copper, brass, sometimes silver, stainless steal and once or twice in 20 years, gold."
She says the metals present her with options to create, and just speaking about the metals you can register that she continues to hold excitement over the potentials within the material.
(Click image to view artist's page.)
"I just like metal. I just like the fact that it is iridescent, it has a depth to it, it has got a patina.
"Your can get your frustrations out when you are hitting it. It quite often does what you want it to do - not always."
In her usage of metals, she applies various techniques to give birth to textures and shapes that eventually become something remarkable.
"I make mostly vessels and small structures. They are either woven or hammered or etched.
"It is really about the surface texture and offering the surface texture before I make the vessel so that there is apparently in the vessel than meets the eye for the firs time - at least from a makers point of view."
She draws inspiration for these shapes and stories from all over, and her studio situated in a stunning foothills landscape acts as a natural contributor.
"Shapes in nature, 3D objects, the roots of the tree by the river, old cars stacked on a flatbed truck that all have this certain rhythm."
"When I was 5 my father worked in Bristol airport on radar at the end of the war. After the war finished, he took me to the airport and there was all these spit fires, maybe 50-60 of them - all lined up on the run way just like corn on the cob and I think that I already had this interest in rhythm.
"I am also a basket maker - I like repeating patterns and things like that. It is very vivid imagery, all of those spitfires all just sitting there, like dogs sitting up, all down the runway.
These memories, and others, combine with the landscape to set the stage for her inspired creation.
"My studio is a refuge that people don't really bother me in and I can work.
"There is a great joy in creating something and there is a time where you don't know what you are going to get in the end, many times it fails.
But when it does succeed, you are left with a unique art form strengthened by the animated concept of story behind it.
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