Hi, my name is Damian Venditti. I'm an artist who lives in downtown Cleveland. I created this profile for the sole purpose of finding a particular type of sheet metal material. I know what I'd like it to be capable of performance wise, but don't know the name of the material itself. I'm designing two series of metal sculptures. One being helmet sculptures and the other being free forms. The included image is of the only metal sculpture I've created thus far, being one of the helmets. It's made of copper. To be clear upfront, I have close to zero experience in metal. I produced metal industrial furniture for a designer for a brief period, but that more or less just entailed cutting metal to size, drilling, grinding, plasma cutting, and applying patina or other finishes. He gave me a quick crash course in soldering but we parted ways soon after when he swapped out personal employee labor for commercial subletting. I more or less lost my metal teacher (boss) the second I lost that job, hence my seeking advice here on Artmetal from metal artists with much more experience than myself. Basically, I've experimented in a few types of metal, finding different problems with each. I'll start out with a shortened description of the material I seek in case one might not have the time to read anything lengthy. It will be followed by a more thorough description of my experience searching thus far for those that do have more time to read. Thank you so much for any advice you could offer!

First "sold" artwork, so, naturally, I have a nostalgic soft spot for this piece.

Does anybody know where I can order bronze in sheet form? Preferably pretty thick like 14 or 16 gauge. I have found one website that just gives a phone number, not the ability to order online.

I also was wondering if anybody has seen the kitchen fixtures,etc that are "oil rubbed bronze" and how that look might be recreated in my studio? I have a family friend asking if I can make a "collar" to go around a wooden beam in his house to cover a gap and wants it to match the other fixtures near it. I haven't decided if it's really do-able yet to match well enough.

I joined the ArtMetal community yesterday and just figured out how to join this group. I design jewelry that incorporates metal clay (fine silver), wire, and sheet metals. I am a certified metal clay instructor; and, I teach primarily in North Carolina.

Crabs, I love them, grew up in Dutch Harbor and seem to think they need a place in the art world, so I have begun to pound out a niche...ya, we shall see

Crab is 16 gauge steel (aprox) recycled from a filing cabinet, heated, plasma cut and POUNDED, has curves and points and many colors.