EARLY TEXTURED WORKS

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I was first introduced to Joe Walters textures through this small knife that I bought from him. The detail was more than attractive, specially the transition between the handle and the polished area.

This work by itself prompted me to think along Joe's own vocabulary and blend my thoughts with his own.
I knew I was in front of someone who understood the value of the traditional and the contemporary vocabularies with this apparently modest small knife. These thoughts brought to me the idea of a far more ambitious project that had this tsuba below as the main focal point.

So the Seasoned Katana was born and along with it Joe Walters presented me with a beautiful knife that shows his great intelligence and skill in grabbing my own intentions.

This beautiful letter opener knife prompted me to once more confirm Joe's innate tendency to talk back in creative terms.
As this was being done, I worked with Joe in two different jewelry pieces in steel for my wife.

This first brooch was made in front of me, when I visited. Joe did it in a couple of hours. The patinated steel was a first attempt at steel jewelry project that is now going under other areas of steel jewelry. The brooch's back was instantly devised by heating and melting a five dollar silver coin that was then ground, and a pin was made from titanium wire.

This second brooch was made later with a design that was sent by email. It all started when I saw a feathered belt that my wife has and while I disliked the feathers while she was wearing it, when I saw it rolled, it became something else, a feathered sculpture..

However I felt that if I had the feathers implanted in the brooch's ring, the entire concept would look awkward. So the feathers were substituted by the steel blackened wires.
It was therefore these various experiences, but mainly the beautiful letter opener that led me to again talk back to Joe with the challenge of a much larger sculpture knife.

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