We think of Erica Moody in terms of time—in terms of her years of creative upbringing, of the three decades put into perfecting her metalwork craft, of how the present moment seems to slow down when handling her work, of how her work will last for decades of use becoming ever more meaningful with each meal served, and of how her teaching at institutions like Penland, Haystack, and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship will pass on a craft from generation to generation. Her Maine Creative Residency, her Giving Back Campaign, her workshops for boat builders and woodworkers—all extend her practice beyond the workshop walls, embodying the ideal creative life: fostering a disappearing craft while creating objects that carry both their maker’s touch and the promise of stories yet to be written.

We had the privilege of speaking with Erica about her story, craft, and philosophy. Read on to learn more from this master metalworker:

Your career spans both artistic and practical realms of metalworking. How did your early experiences shape your approach to blending design and utility?

As a child, I was exposed to both the practical ethics of a family history steeped in farming for a living, and my mother who is a studio and teaching artist. My parents were hugely inspirational in how they worked hard to create a unique and beautiful space to live. They explored homesteading while working full-time professional jobs, and were intent on weaving creativity and passionate intention into all they did, thriving on learning and creating.

As someone who apprenticed and learned through hands-on experience, what aspects of metalwork can only be understood through practice versus instruction?

The type of projects I was trained on were not part of an instruction book, but unique and often complicated projects that both my boss and I had to brainstorm together to engineer and execute well. The challenges we were presented with would be so far from what we could have introduced ourselves, as they were concepts given by non-metalworking architects and designers. This opportunity to engineer complex requests from scratch in a very simply outfitted metal shop, requiring a very high degree of detail and finish, was my primary education on understanding the material of metals.

You combine multiple metalworking techniques in a single piece. Could you break down the fabrication sequence for something like your Feather Series, including any particularly tricky operations?

For the Feather Series of serving ware, they start with research on antique serving ware pieces, finding inspiration for the lines and shapes for the profiles, and shape and materials for the handles as well. I then turn to paper and pencil to sketch to scale some possible ideas. Once I feel like I’m in the ballpark of the shape, I transfer the sketch to a piece of stainless steel, then cut it out on the bandsaw. I then true up the lines and shape on the belt sander. At this stage Imay modify the shape from the tracing, as I’m sanding. I then will trace the new sanded profile to keep a flat pattern in case I decide to keep it for replicating. I then will drill holes in the handle to attach the handle material. Then I shape the bowl form by heating and dishing by hammering into forms and on the anvil. Once I like the full shape of the stainless steel body, I start to make the handle ‘scale’ that gives it more dimension. For this series, I carved a shape and texture in wax, and then had it cast in silicon brass. Once the castings are ready, I size them to fit the stainless steel bodies, transfer the rivet hole locations, drill, and then rivet them all together, and fine tune the whole piece by sanding and burnishing.

Your work centers heavily on traditional tools and analog machines – some nearly 100 years old. Could you describe what these vintage tools enable that modern equipment might not?

These old machines are both beautiful, sturdy, and affordable. One of the things that first drew me into a career in the building trades was the inspiration I could see in these old machines that still had beautiful details in their knobs and levers, their mechanical sounds, the exposed gears…unlike a lot of modern machines. But honestly, their use, fortunately, is extremely practical due to how cheap they are to acquire. They don’t have any computers in them, and are simple to maintain, and hardly ever need any repair. Their affordability allowed me to be able to set up a metal studio fairly quickly.

Many of your pieces combine different metals – brass with steel, copper with aluminum. What draws you to these material combinations and what challenges do they present?

The materials that I use are primarily based on the decades of experience in working with them from when I worked with architects on furniture and railings. These are the materials that I’ve become familiar with after years of wrestling with them when challenged to engineer and fabricate what the clients wanted, which wasn’t often very practical or common approaches to how the material traditionally had been used. I like to continue working with these materials, as they are not as precious as silver and gold, which allows more room for the cost of a project to go into the fine detail and workmanship. I like to mix the materials primarily for the color juxtaposition and utilize the different benefits of the material for effectiveness in the use of the piece. For example, in the feathered servingware pieces and much of the flatware I make, the bodies are made with stainless steel, which is a very durable and hard material and far less expensive than silver. But because stainless steel is so hard, it becomes very difficult to efficiently use certain hand wrought techniques with it, especially using thicker sheet. But if I use thin stainless sheet, and layer the handle with another material, it can be more efficient to make and adds an extra dimension in size, color, and shape.