Metalsmith Benchtalk with Michael Gayk, Educator, Digital Designer and Maker

Our guest on Metalsmith Benchtalk on Thursday, April 16th, 2015 at 3:00 PST/ 6:00 EST is Michael Gayk, educator, digital designer and maker of things.

Please join us for this LIVE interview and participate by logging onto the chatroom at Blogtalkradio.com or by sending a message to Whaley Studios via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. 

About Michael: 

Michael Gayk earned an MFA in Jewelry and Metals from the University of Washington and an BFA in Metals Design from the College for Creative Studies.

Plural Studios is a design collaboration between Courtney Starrett and Michael Gayk. Plural is interested in creating well-designed objects for the home or body, utilizing innovative digital technologies to create limited editions of our objects. We are inspired by architecture on a micro-level; observing transitions, connections, and details, as the sum of all parts, both man-made and natural.  At Plural we strive for accessibility along with high design objects both for the home and the body.

“My current work investigates the relationship between body adornment and the digitized human body. Historically jewelry has always reflected the technologies of its time. A necklace fashioned from seashells dating 80 BCE years old was found at Taforalt in eastern Morocco. This discovery illustrates the sense of symbolic material value of that time and suggests a developed capacity for cultural modernity. The example of the seashell necklace comes from a genus of marine snail called Nassarius, which no longer inhabits the shores of Morocco today. With the use of advanced manufacturing methods such at bio-printing and DNA duplication it may be possible to cultivate the lost Nassarius, or any biological structure.”

Website: 

http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/members/michaelgayk/