Brass Pendants: Flipping Guns Inside Out
Presented at ARW 2026 by Scotty Utz
ARTS & CREATIVITY | CREATIVE MINISTRY GUIDE
In this hands-on workshop, participants worked with non-ferrous metals including brass, copper, and aluminum to create pendants and wearable art. Through heating, bending, shaping, and polishing metal, the class explored transformation both as an artistic process and as a way of flipping the paradigm of violence to create something beautiful.
Participants explored the process of annealing metal and considered the connections between hardness, flexibility, and transformation. Working with metal became a mindful practice and an invitation to reflect on the ways materials, objects, and even our own hearts can be reshaped.
IN THIS RESOURCE
• Key takeaways from the workshop
• Ideas for continuing the creative process
• Tools and materials used
• Metalworking and annealing resources
• Inspiration for reflection and transformation
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Scotty Utz is an artist and blacksmith whose creative journey has included welding, ranch work, ministry, sociology, and community college blacksmithing courses. He splits his time between serving as Artist Blacksmith for RAWtools South and creating commissioned work. Scotty continues to explore the intersection of art, transformation, and making.
Part of the re:create Creative Ministry Library, a growing collection of arts, worship, recreation, Playology, and leadership resources shared by the re:create community.
