Erica Moody, Metal Craftsman
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A professional metal fabricator by trade since 1994, Erica has worked with architects and homeowners on their custom metalwork needs, and has been doing related commissions through her business Magma Metalworks since 2001, which now operates under her name. Projects have been welded and machined of various metals to fabricate items such as custom hardware and railings, to furniture and sculpture. She has a passion for resolving unique engineering challenges that also require fussy attention to fine detail and well-executed craft.
In 2016 she began to create smaller pieces of her own design, making fine tools primarily focused on serving good food.
Using many traditional metalworking and jewelry techniques and using old analog industrial machines, she explores designs that share the beauty and history of Making and hopes to elevate the experience of everyday tasks through pleasing design and a unique connection to that shared passion with a maker around a handmade object.
Erica balances studio time with teaching, both in training invaluable studio assistants as well as teaching workshops designed to introduce accessible metalworking techniques to the woodworking and wooden boat building communities. Making a living doing this type of work is a lifestyle choice. It is a difficult career to sustain in a modern world, but it is a way for her to try and live close to her values of living a life that has a low impact on the environment and connects her to resources and community on a human scale.
To give back to the community, Erica established a monthly Giving Back Campaign, where she donates 5% of online retail sales to a different social justice cause. In the last several years the amount donated has been over $22,000. Please note small color banner along top of page for current giving campaign, and learn more about the great organizations that I'm learning about that do such good essential work!
Erica works out of her home-based barn studio in Midcoast Maine.
Photo credit: Alissa Hessler
