Artist Transforms Old Keys And Coins Into Beautiful Art

The key to living off art is finding something that will make the money roll in. Or make sculptures out of keys and coins like Michael Moerkerk. Working under the nom-de-blowtorch of Moerkey, this Australian started with spheres and balls, and worked his way up from there. His current collection boasts – in addition to copious amounts of the before mentioned spheroids – key bottles and wine glasses, bowls and female torsos. He was even working on a dolphin at one point! Many of these beautiful art pieces are available for sale on his Etsy. Yes, even the decorative female torso.

Moerkerk claims that he had only one day of soldering class thirty years ago, and gained the rest of his skills via copious amounts of YouTube. He's a self-taught wood worker and a photographer, but his discovery of metal working was accidental: “Not so long ago, when I was supposed to be cleaning out my shed, I came across some old copper pipe saved from a previous renovation. I cut it up into rings and started making it into spheres. The first ones were a bit rough but once I worked out the technique I got creative.”

“Got creative” is one way to put it, considering the dolphin and the torso.

If you like what you see, Moerkey's Etsy shop can be found here.