Once again, Festival of the Arts is offering an “Introductory Welding for Artists” workshop due to the popularity in previous years.
The class, put on by Dave Murray, Ferris professor in the department of welding technology, is extremely popular. “Introductory Welding for Artists” is filled up weeks before the initial class. This year the panel decided not to allow anyone that had taken the class last year to do it again. This way, more people will have the opportunity to learn about welding.
It is a three week class held in the welding lab on campus. For the first two classes, Murray informs everyone of basic welding techniques. From the first night, they are allowed to conduct hands-on activities to better familiarize themselves with various welding and cutting processes.
On the third and final night, the class is allowed to construct anything they wish from the supplies donated by the Ferris welding program. Free-standing statues, mobiles, flowers, birds and fish have all been created.
Murray claims one of the coolest artists he has encountered cut a perfectly realistic woman out of a steel sheet in under a minute.
“A lot of this stuff you’d see in a fine studio,” Murray said.
The first night, which took place Feb. 12, got off to a good start. The class is filled with mainly middle-aged men and women to senior citizens. No one got hurt and no one was scared off, according to Murray.
“It’s amazing because [the first] night everybody’s petrified and then by the end of the night when I tell them to clean up, they’re like ‘I can’t believe it. Look what I did.’ So they’ve really progressed,” Murray said.