Consider your silverware drawer. If you’re anything like me, it’s filled with forks and knives and measuring apparatus from a mix of sets lost to the dishwasher over the years. Functional, sure, but not, as the kids say, aesthetic.
Now consider metal fabricator Erica Moody who, in 2016, took a long look at her silverware drawer and decided to do something about it.
Take the Medallion Spoon, for example. A shiny, patinated copper bowl punctuates a sculptural brass handle and looks, against a charcoal backdrop, like a dazzling planet in the night sky. Or the Brass Serving Fork. With its striking, two-pronged form—made for piercing pickles, olives, and other small bites—it very nearly appears regal. Like all of Erica’s pieces, these were designed and fabricated in her homebased, barn studio in the midcoast, where she employs vintage industrial machines to forge her jewelry-like wares.
Erica wasn’t “green” when she set out to reimagine utensils as things of culinary beauty—quite the opposite. She spent the 22 years prior collaborating with architects and homeowners to create everything from hardware and railings to furniture and sculpture, honing a reputation of excellence in precision engineering and refined craftsmanship along the way.
While her subjects may be smaller these days, her reputation, if anything, has only grown. Through workshops, training programs, and campaigns (like her monthly Giving Back Campaign, which has donated over $22,000 to social justice causes) Erica lives by her mission: Preserving the integrity of craft while fostering a meaningful connection to materials, people, and purpose.
