Luka Allen
he/they
San Jose, CA, USA
Luka Allen, based in San Jose, CA, is a Bladesmith, Industrial Designer, and Jeweler. He has been training as a bladesmith since mid-2018 which sparked their interest in physical design as a career. They are completing their BFA in Industrial and Product Design at the University of Oregon this year and they focus mainly on home goods and furniture. He has also taken an extensive amount of jewelry and metalsmithing courses from various institutions and has worked as a TA for UOregon's J&M program. They focus mainly on simple and recognizable forms with extravagant patterning inspired by organic elements, and their primary materials are steel, copper, wood, and upcycled manmade composites. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his family, listening to music, and learning new crafts.
“In jewelry, my work is typically inspired by organic patterns and natural yet architectural forms. This piece, titled ‘Trilobite’ is a spine-like neckpiece inspired by the vertebrae and exoskeletons of crustaceans and isopods which are creatures that live both on land and in water. The vertebrae sway as the wearer moves to mimic the gentle current of the sea floor. The pendant of the piece is a copper trilobite which is an extinct arthropod from the Cambrian Period. This piece was made through forming, piercing, and riveting for the vertebrae and forming, piercing, riveting, and soldering for the pendant.”
How does your work relate to the theme connection?
“Aside from the obvious connection to nature and the world around me, this piece is actually inspired by the relationship between me and my dad. Growing up partly near Lake Michigan, a large part of my childhood memories come from going fossil hunting with my dad. I still have a pretty big collection of some of the mold and cast fossils we found over the years. His favorite creature is the trilobite and it became a very significant symbol to our family even resulting in matching tattoos. My dad is also the one who helped me get into metalworking and in turn became a metalworker himself. He and I have always had a little project going whether it be an architectural model made of cardboard, jewelry made of old coins, or even just young me pressing the breaks on an old car so he could ease new break fluid through it. So, it just makes sense for me to make a piece inspired by my connection with one of my favorite and most inspirational people who played such a large part in helping me find my passions in life."
"Trilobite", copper, approx. 15" x 11", 2022What role does connection play in your creative process?
“In a literal sense, I used the cold-connection technique of riveting to assemble most of this piece. Figuratively, most of my creative process comes from and is inspired the connection between nature and manmade as well as my personal connection to the communities of makers I am a part of. When I am struggling with a certain aspect of my project, I like to take a break and walk around outside especially near my university studio and hang around the creek to reconnect with the nature around me. I also like to work in a collective space whether that be in my garage with my dad or in my university's metalsmithing studio so I always have people around me to talk about projects with. I find it very important to check in with my peers and mentors to give and receive feedback during the creative process. I also like to use my internet connection (haha) to share my work in progress images to my peers who don't live in my area. Connection is an invaluable part of my creativity despite it usually going under the radar and I don't think I would be where I am today without it."
What connection(s) does your queerness make to the world around you?
“Since my queerness is such an intrinsic and noticeable part of my life due to being visibly trans, there isn't really a connection in my life that it doesn't influence. It affects my daily life and the connections I make in society in both positive and negative ways, but it has also given me several communities that I am eternally grateful for. For one, the local scenes and events I am a part of bring so much joy to my life and allow me to connect with people I would not have met otherwise such as the Rainbow Bingo I go to every week at my local queer community center, as well as the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths where we have a network of queer and otherwise marginalized smiths living across the US. It has even brought me closer to classmates I would have otherwise not really interacted with, and I have been able to develop great camaraderie with people from incredibly different backgrounds and interests due to our shared identities."
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“For this project, I got to experiment a lot with and do some research on forced heat patinas using liver of sulfur which I have since used in my production work. One person who was very influential in my process and acted as a mentor regarding techniques was Anya Kivarkis of the University of Oregon Jewelry and Metalsmithing Department. She provided me with demos on how to do some of the specific processes I was a little hesitant on testing on my own such as sweat soldering very thin and delicate pieces of copper together."