(footsteps clomping) -(upbeat music) -(train horn blaring) Yeah, when I first started sculpting, I was really fast.

Like, about one hour, have like a couple of things done, but I think slowing everything down, it's way better, especially like nowadays where everyone's trying to make a quick reel.

They're like, "Oh, I'm gonna make something real fast.

All right, I gotta get that reel going."

But me, I'm like, I just wanna slow it down.

It feels better that way.

You're not rushing, you're not, like, stressed out over something that you wanna make, you know?

I'm Ajene Williams, and I'm a resident artist here at Sloss Furnace.

The weeks went on when I first started as a summer youth kid, and the last two weeks, I was kind of like, "Maybe I could do this, you know, like maybe."

So then we had our final show.

I came in first place, and then the boss at the time said he wanted me to work here.

And I was like, "All right, sounds good."

Weeks went by, and he caught me at the skate park, because I didn't know if he was talking about for real.

So he found me at the skate park and, like, drove me to Sloss.

(upbeat music continues) I've been a artist in residence here for 12 years, ever since high school.

I started off making birds out of wax.

So I really didn't know what I wanted to create yet.

So I got all these animal books, and I would go home and just sculpt each and every one.

(upbeat music continues) When I first made that, I was like, "Now this is what I wanna make."

So that piece, it's kind of sitting down.

He has like a spigot on his heart, and he has like a record player, and his hands are on the record kind of like this, and it has a crank on the back.

So you crank it up, and he kind of like plays it with his fingers 'cause it's like a bike chain in there.

So, plays it with his fingers, and it's kind of like, it takes you to do it.

And it's kind of like he's in his own groove.

(upbeat music continues) I started hammering the face.

It's when we had a conference, right?

And I was like showing off my piece, "Space in Time."

I was like just telling 'em about stuff.

Someone thought I cast my face, like took a mold of it.

I was like, "No, no, I sculpted it," and I was trying to tell him how I did it.

He was like, "No, why you lying?"

And I was like, "What?

What?

Really?

I sculpted it."

So I started blacksmithing the face, so it was kind of like, "Now do you believe me?"

Like, I sculpted it.

That's when I first started doing that, because of that.

I was just like, "That's weird."

I can't believe it.

It was weird.

I don't know.

This piece started as a metal shelf, and I hammered it to look like this.

First, it's kind of like just a thought I have, but then once it gets to certain steps of the process, I can just trace myself.

So I just take the chalk, put my hand down, trace, and then I use a swage block a lot of the time and then a hammer, get it real close to like the initial shape that I want, and then I can weld those pieces together.

Then I grind it back with a die grinder.

It's pretty long.

I would cast it, but it always takes a team to run it.

I feel like doing it this way, it slows me down, 'cause casting, you can just do it all in one.

You have to do all this welding, chasing, cutting, and cutting it again, and then just welding it again.

Doing it this way, I could just slow everything down.

Hair?

[Interviewer] Like on the sculpture, like how did you do the hair?

Oh, it was all welding.

So I just take it, and I just (imitates flame hissing) like that, just keep welding it.

And then sometimes I come back with a die grinder and like stripe it so I can get some like lines into it.

The eyelashes were like used-up wire brush.

So I took the wire brush, I cut it in half and stuck 'em in there.

Since, you know, this site is open to the public, I'll be working on something, and someone would be like, "Did somebody commission to make that?"

I'm like, "No."

They're like, "Why you making it?"

"Just wanna make it."

(mellow music) Once I finish a piece, I'm like, "What am I gonna do now?"

(laughs)