Craftsman+Series+-+Shovels,+The

Date: 2011
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2013/2013.77A-C_1a.jpg&max=460 width="242" height="326" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=83931"]] || Title: **The Craftsman Series: Shovels**

Artist: **Stacey Lee Webber** Born: Indianapolis, Indiana 1982

Medium: pennies, brass, silver, and copper Dimensions: each shovel: 58 x 10 x 6 in. (147.3 x 25.4 x 15.2 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase made possible by the Clare Brackett Morison Bequest in memory of Philip Fike and museum purchase through the Richard T. Evans Fund

Accessibility: 2013.77A-C || Coins are a major element in Stacey Lee Webber’s works. She cuts, welds, and reshapes coins into larger forms. US pennies are especially of interest to her, because these coins now cost more to produce than their face value. The decreased value of pennies due to inflation has made the coins largely worthless. For her pennies are an apt metaphor for the American industrial worker, who if employed may be well paid, but his (or her) work is undervalued. To make a piece with coins, Webber generally cuts and solders together individual coins. When using pennies, she only selects coins from 1982 and earlier. These pennies are made of copper, unlike the later copper-plated zinc pennies. Coincidentally, Webber was also born in 1982.
 * About the Artwork: **

The artist’s //Craftsmen Series// features manual labor tools constructed from pennies, implying a defense of blue-collar workers’ skills and a requiem for their livelihoods. More broadly the objects recreated with pennies are a statement on global economic factors, viability of domestic production, and the continuing struggles of the American worker, who is an ongoing concern similar to the US penny. The pieces in her series include: hammer, saw, shovels, screwdrivers, tape measure (created with vintage silver dimes and quarters), plumb bob, and stepladder.

Webber is a metalsmith artist. She holds a BFA in metals from Ball State University and a BFA in metals from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work with coins and metal encompasses manual labor tools to jewelry.

Bell, Nicholas R. //40 Under 40: Craft Futures// (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 27-28, 30, 226-229, 251.
 * Resources: **

“Stacey Lee Webber: The Dignity of Work,” //American Craft// (Oct/Nov 2015), 058.

Stacy Lee Webber on Mark Newport- Renwick Connections Video "Political Art from Pennies" - Video

SAAM Collections Page Stacey Lee Webber Official Site Stacey Lee Webber Online Store
 * Links: **