When this piece is sitting on a bench, it reads as a small metal turtle with a rounded, domed shell, four legs bent as if mid-step, a head and a short tail. The whole figurine is worked from pattern-welded steel, and the surface carries wavy etched lines running across every part, so the layering shows everywhere you look, not just on top. The maker returned to traditional smithing for this one and described the process as peaceful and a welcome change from more intricate work, which fits a subject that stands for being slow and steady. My kind of project.
The build started as a steel billet, and it turns out it was an offcut put to good use, which I think is a smart way to spend material that might otherwise sit in a corner. The underside is the detail that stands out to me: there are deep relief cuts and shaping where the legs branch away from the central body. Working clean geometry on the hidden side of a small sculpture takes real patience, and the fact that the maker did not skip it says a lot about the care here.
It is not all smooth, though. The maker has said they should have practiced on mild steel first, which suggests the pattern-welded stock was demanding to move and shape. That is a fair trade-off to own up to, and honestly it makes the finished shell pattern even more impressive to my eye.
The maker is planning a sea turtle as the next piece and is also putting together a video about this build. I will be watching for both, since the wavy lines on this little shell already look like water moving over it.