Where heat and metal meet, Erin Diedrich brings a world of beauty alive.

Wielding an oxy-acetylene torch, Diedrich has released a sea monster from an ordinary piece of rebar and coaxed a delicate, leafy vine to sprout from steel with a hammer and chisel. A junior in materials science and engineering at Washington State University (WSU) and recipient of the 2010 TMS Extraction & Processing Division Scholarship, Diedrich says that creating hand-forged artistic pieces “supplements my education. I get to manipulate and play around with steel in a creative environment, and the only restrictions I have are my own skills.”

Diedrich began exploring metalworking as an art form in an introductory welding class at South Puget Sound Community College in her hometown of Olympia, Washington. “I decided to major in materials science and engineering just before I started my welding class, and part of the reason I took it was to see if working with metal would be a good fit,” she said. Inspired to create a steel sea monster garden ornament for her mother, Diedrich consulted with her welding instructor on how to get started. “He suggested that I use some forging techniques for part of it, and showed me some of the basics,” she said.

From there, Diedrich moved on to such ambitious projects as candlesticks and coffee tables featuring hand-forged scroll work.

Read about Diedrich's metalworking in the May issue of JOM.