Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 11, 2011
Junk tin can artist to teach workshop for beginners, experts
David Laprad
Karen Rudolph is a Chattanooga-based artist who creates items out of recycled tin cans. She’s scheduled to host a workshop teaching the basics of her craft on March 12 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Townsend Atelier, located at 201 W. Main St.
- David Laprad
When Stan and Peggy Townsend of Townsend Atelier began looking for artists to teach workshops at their new studio, they were hoping to find instructors who would appeal to beginners and skilled artisans alike. When they found Karen Rudolph, they struck gold. Or rather, tin.
Rudolph has been recycling tin cans to produce altered items since 2002. Whether she’s making a tote bag out of a Campbell’s soup logo or a purse out of a Charley’s pretzel can, she loves taking something people normally discard and turning it into something whimsical and new.
“The fun of making things out of tin cans is the raw materials. If you’re a jeweler, the materials are going to cost you a lot of money. With tin cans, you can pick them up on the side of the road, or your aunt will have a bunch in her basement gathering dust, or someone will show up at your door with an armload,” she says.
Rudolph is preparing to teach a workshop she’s calling “The Art of the Tin Can.” Scheduled to take place March 12 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., her class will introduce participants to the basic tools and techniques of tinsmithing. Rudolph is limiting the workshop to eight participants so she can spend one-on-one time with each person.
All materials will be provided, so workshop participants will need to bring only their imaginations. And two jokes. “We want everyone to have a good laugh and relax before we begin,” she says.
Rudolph will have the tools of her trade on hand as well, including tin snips, vice grips, hammers, copper nails, rulers, center punches and other implements. While she encourages people who have tinsmithing equipment to bring it, she says she won’t be teaching soldering techniques, so students should leave those tools at home.
Rudolph says the possibilities for turning tin cans into art are infinite. Wall sculptures, toys, jewelry, clocks, lamps and even musical instruments can all be fashioned from license plates, popcorn tins, bottle caps, Altoids containers and more. Her class will show people how.
“We’ll do some small projects in the morning to teach everyone how to use tin snips, for example, and then we’ll build on those skills throughout the day. In the afternoon, students will have time to work on their own projects. You won’t walk out with anything big, but you will leave with the skills to go home and make something larger,” Rudolph says.
Rudolph became interested in tinsmithing when she was a full-time artist. While working as the resident blacksmith at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C., she was introduced to Bobby Hansson, the father of junk tin can art. Rudolph took a couple of classes Hansson taught and fell in love with the idea of using something that’s discarded on a regular basis to make something else.
“The more I studied tinsmithing, the more I got into it. I took more classes, collected some tools, and now I share a studio with three other artists,” she says.
Rudolph no longer has the luxury of devoting all of her time to her craft. However, her full-time job at the Lyndhurst Foundation, where she does arts and culture grants, keeps her connected to the community of artists in Chattanooga.
For her, tinsmithing is a pursuit of passion, not sustenance, so she’s able to do it because she wants to, not because she has to. “At the end of the work day, some people go to the gym to relieve stress. I go to my studio. It’s my way of unwinding,” she says.
It helps that some of the hard work is already done, leaving only the parts that require her creativity and ingenuity.
“Jewelers spend hours making the perfect cylinder for a bangle, but you already have that when you’re working with a tin can. You just have to file off the edges, attach some beads, and you have a funky bracelet to give to your niece. The colors are already there, too, so you don’t have to paint,” she says.
The simplicity at the heart of tinsmithing makes it a good medium for beginners, though Rudolph says becoming skilled takes time and practice. She put in her time, and people are consistently astonished at the results. Her tin can handbags always elicit enthusiastic reviews, and despite their unique aesthetic value, can double as a real purse.
“I use mine quite a bit. The best thing is it doubles as a weapon,” she says laughing.
To register for the workshop, visit www.townsendatelier.com or call 423-266-2712. To ask Rudolph questions about the course, email her at ruderockdesigns@gmail.com. Townsend Atelier is located at 201 W. Main St., in Chattanooga’s burgeoning art district.
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