by Tara Thorne
Kristianne LeBreton is back again, literally hammering out the awards given out at Women Making Waves. The New Brunswick metalsmith designed the inaugural statue for the debut event in 2011, and personally cut, glued, moulded, pressed and—yes—hammered the four statues given to four notable figures in Atlantic Canadian film.
WIFT-AT “approached me and wanted a design based on their logo but also wanted to integrate waves, to represent the Maritimes,” says the artist from her home in Burtts Corner, NB. “I did a couple of sketches—I was looking in books, and I saw a, oh what’s the word? That’s my French brain taking over. A silhouette! I wanted a woman’s figure but with the hair on the side, to represent a wave. They chose what they liked the best and let me go.”
LeBreton is a graduate of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, moving to Fredericton from her home in tiny Dundee, settling in Burtts Corner after graduating with a diploma in fine craft. In addition to creating and selling jewellery, she also works at NBCCD in the jewellery department and in the Fredericton supply store Beadnik, quite literally living her art.
The WIFT awards are made from four materials: “copper, brass, Plexiglas’s and wood,” says LeBreton. “I wanted to build something that looked like a film reel, but I needed a certain thickness, so wood was quite natural. One of the processes is called a hydraulic press—I built the mould myself and got it pressed. The metal I hammered myself. I used a special glue that’s just for epoxy. I engraved the names myself. I worked two or three weeks steady on them, a lot of testing, a lot of designs, and building it took me a couple days each.”
The WIFT-AT trophy isn’t the only one in LeBreton’s case—“I had one the year before for the Woodstock High School,” she says. “They have a big basketball tournament every year called The Thunder Valley Classic.”
Though LeBreton would love to be a go-to trophy maker for the region, there is the issue of time and labour with handmade pieces: “The biggest competition would be the mass production companies,” she says, “which are a lot cheaper.”
But with her third art show in six months on the horizon for May, it’s safe to say she’s not worried about the work washing away.
See more of Kristianne’s work at unforgottenmetalart.com.
Related posts:
Connect with us