It’s one of the first nice days in recent memory, and the sun is shining. In Beth Gage’s studio up the stairs of 333 Garry Street, it’s more than a few degrees warmer. “Yeah, it’s hot as hell,” she comments as we push open the old window looking out from her painted black desk.
Beth sits down to work the settings on a ring while I photograph her small, warm space. Roughly half of the room is given over to work: the desk she’s sitting at and an adjacent table where soldering equipment and a small gas tank wait. Pushed against the opposite wall are a worn-in couch and a rack of vintage leather and denim jackets Beth sells alongside her jewellery at pop-ups. The white walls are dotted with small framed prints and a few 1960’s Shriner figurines. An old plastic doll, Miss Yvonne from Peewee’s playhouse, hangs high in one corner.
Scraping back her chair and sitting down at the soldering table, Beth turns the flame on a ring of precious metal, transforming it into a glowing orange circle. After working for a few minutes, she asks me if I’d like to try. She pulls a small piece of scrap metal from a drawer and begins to set things up for me. “The most important thing is that you feel safe,” she says as she strikes the flint. I reassure her that I do, and she’s bringing the broad flame down to a focused point, then handing it to me and gently instructing me as I bring the point toward the scrap. The small piece of metal suddenly loses its shape and becomes a molten bead. I exclaim, and Beth smiles. She puts each tool back in its place, and we sit down to talk more about her work.
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