Our dear Audre Myers certainly has a niche—competition shows based on obscure crafts.  This week’s installment of Myersvision is no different.

But the craftsmanship (and craftwomanship) here involves bending heavy metal (the actual material, not the music) to the artists’ wills.  It’s a fiery example of forging life and art from inorganic, heavy matter.

I’d like to say I could forge my own metallic coffee cup from leftover aluminum cans (I think my neighbor can do that), but I possess no such skills.  The ability to smith my own nails with casual disdain is another casualty of our modern age (or, perhaps, my own unwillingness to learn blacksmithing when nails are in ready abundance at the hardware store).

Regardless, it’s always a treat to watch master craftsman at work, and Audre really captures the spirit and beauty of that process in this review.

With that, here is Audre’s review of the Netflix series Metal Shop Masters:

I seem to have a passion for competitions. This strikes me as odd because I have never had enough faith in myself to think I could do something better than anyone else. I admire the chutzpah of the contestants whether it’s cooking, hand blown glass work or this – metal fabrication. I also have a fascination with things of which I have no working knowledge. How do you build a house? How does plumbing get installed? Aside from a key, what makes a car work? How does one create art from scrap metal?

I was absorbed in this competition and the contestants – all artists as well as being metal fabricators. Artists see things other people miss until the artist makes us aware. I’m in the (very slow) process of having an aluminum staircase built that will go from the drive way up to the apartment over our garage. I am looking forward to (finally) getting the build plans from the draftsman. This fits in nicely with a show highlighting metal work. My staircase won’t resemble a bison or a face mask or a mobile, but that’s one side of metal work, but my staircase won’t be a piece of art, either.

As you might expect, none of the challenges the artists face are easy; they are also open to the artist’s interpretation of what is being asked of them. Artists are a different kind of person, which is how they create things we may never conceive of. I thought it was surprising – although it shouldn’t have been – that there were three women in the competition as well as men. The women use the same materials but come at the challenge from a different perspective. In any event, it’s hot, dirty work and can require some physical strength above what one might expect. There’s also the possibility of burns, cuts, having a heavy creation fall on the artist … this is not knitting. Nor is it for the fainthearted.

There is one thing I noticed – and I’ve noticed it in other competitions as well – sometimes the artist becomes locked into their own vision and refuses to bend to what the challenge calls for. The supreme example of this is the final challenge.But maybe, just maybe, that’s what being an artist is all about. I’m not going to give it away – you’ll have to see for yourself.