Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
The purpose of this creative project is twofold: Firstly, to study various pattern-welding processes that have been used throughout history, and secondly, to attempt to create a piece or several pieces of art using the processes studied. Pattern-welding traditionally refers to the practice of creating forged laminates composed of alternating…
The purpose of this creative project is twofold: Firstly, to study various pattern-welding processes that have been used throughout history, and secondly, to attempt to create a piece or several pieces of art using the processes studied. Pattern-welding traditionally refers to the practice of creating forged laminates composed of alternating layers of two or more compositionally distinct metals. This term is typically used to specifically refer to these techniques when they are used for the creation of blades, with laminates made of high-phosphorus iron, low-phosphorus mild steel, and/or wrought iron, which was historically done to give the final weapon allegedly better mechanical properties (Thiele et al., 2015). This technique, while supposedly creating mechanically superior weapons in terms of durability and strength, also results in a unique, incredibly aesthetic visual effect. As the laminated billet of metals is twisted, deformed, etched, and polished, the different layers of metals become visible, resulting in a range of patterns depending on the deformation techniques used, and it was this aesthetic value that truly led to the widespread use of pattern-welding. Metals worked in this manner are colloquially known today as Damascus, although the process is technically distinct from true Damascus steel. For the purposes of this creative project, I will extend the concept of pattern-welding beyond strictly using iron and steel used to create swords, and include the similar artistic technique known as mokume-gane. Mokume-gane, which directly translates into English as “wood-grain metal” (Binnion, 2011), also involves forging alternating layers of different metals into a billet, but uses softer metals, historically silver, gold, copper, and alloys of the above. Mokume-gane, which has only relatively recently been used in the West, is the technique that I used to create my art pieces for this creative project.
