Day 4: The Make Works Christmas Countdown

For the Make Works Christmas Countdown this year, we will be telling you a bit about different materials each day, with suggestions about where you can work with it in Scotland.

Day 4: Aluminium

Lightweight, malleable and non magnetic; aluminium is a soft metal recognised by it’s silvery-white colour. It is the third most abundant metal found on the planet’s crust and most widely used non-ferrous metal worldwide. In 2014, 54 million metric tonnes of aluminium were produced globally and it plays a large part in the world economic market. 

Aluminium has been used as far back as the ancient Romans and Greeks who used aluminium salts both for dyeing and as astringents for dressing wounds. Today aluminium is usually compounded with another metal and used for construction, machinery, to packaging and cooking utensils. You can find out more about the history of aluminium at the Institute of Aluminium history. 

For artists and designers interested in using aluminium, it can be used in similar ways to many other metals. For example aluminium can be welded, cut, cast, water jet cut, laser cut, extruded or powder coated. Whilst aluminium extraction of bauxite is very energy intensive and can destroy local ecosystems in the process, it is a material that can be easily recycled - which if used will help reduce the amount of aluminium products sent to landfill. 

In Scotland, aluminium casting is typically done in a foundry, there is a Scottish foundry list here. You can also work with it at metal fabricators such as Reekie Steeltec or JBG Steelcraft, or have aluminium machined at Q Mass or NPI Solutions.

In Birmingham you can work with Clifton Steel,  buy blocks of aluminium at John Keatley Metals.