The creation journey of Metalsmithing always makes me roam in a miniature sculpture selflessly. _ Beatrice Chiang
Beatrice Chiang, one of the famous Metal Artists and educators, who is a professor of Department of Arts and Design of NTHU in Taiwan. Engaged in creative Metalsmithing & craftwork for over two decades, she have come to see this endeavor as an accord between body and time reached through a process of dialectical interaction. Aesthetic value and aesthetic quality need to be given central importance in contemporary craftwork. Thus she regularly describe her work as “Miniature Sculpture,” since sculpture is widely understood, and such a description helps to correct common misconceptions about the meaning of Metalsmithing.
Her work is a fusion of fantasy and reality inspired by surrealism, Western philosophy, and Daoism, by which she explores the dynamic energy generated by the interplay of objects and embodied human experience. In both form and technique, her creative process is a bold fusion of tradition and innovation, in which she vigorously and earnestly examines the relationship between time and existence. In terms of creative form, as a way of extending our understanding of the space between people and things, she experiment with various ways of combining metal with other materials— glass, paper, wood, fiber, plastic, RP Resin, LED etc.— to produce a novel visual experience. In recent years she have begun to incorporate digital media into her work and teaching, as a way of diversifying craftwork and making it more contemporary.
In addition to applying the techniques of installation art to decorative items, she also try to expand the scope of metalworking to include large-scale public art. As a way of diversifying her work and making it more contemporary, in recent years she has been exhibiting her work abroad and augmenting her traditional style by making use of various forms of digital technology. She also sees her work as a way of rectifying the customary view that regards the production of jewelry as a mere appendage of the precious metals industry, and is striving to transform the image of contemporary metalwork by highlighting its creative process and aesthetic value, so as to provide it with an exclusive pedigree. In sum, her mission is no less than to reinvent metalsmithing as a traditional art and craft enhanced by the application of modern technology.
金工創作猶如微型雕塑的遊歷，往往使人在其間徜徉而得以忘我。_ 江怡瑩
江怡瑩（國立清華大學藝術與設計學系專任教授）為國內外知名之金工藝術家與教育家，投入金屬工藝創作（Metalsmithing，簡稱金工）二十餘載，她為了延續強化「美感價值」(Aesthetics Value)或維護「審美品質」（Aesthetics Quality）在當代工藝創作領域應有的主導地位，常以「微形雕塑」(Miniature Sculpture)來輔助說明她以金屬為主要媒材而進行的創作活動，意欲援引雕塑已演化至較為成熟、通識的多元意涵，修正觀者以往對於金工藝術的刻板認知。
藉由耙梳老莊智慧與西方哲理，探討物與人之間關於身體經驗的回歸循環與虛體意象的能量，她效法老莊與超現實主義者，自由自在地拼貼了夢幻與現實。在工藝創作中，無論在內容形式或方法技巧，江怡瑩皆大膽嘗試了傳統與創新的結合與突破，嘗試以活潑生動的手法，探討嚴肅的「時間」與「存在」議題。在創作形式上，除延續物與人的空間探討外，在材質研究上，她仍十分熱衷於金屬與異媒材質的結合嘗試，將金屬、玻璃、紙漿、木塊、纖維、塑料、光敏聚合樹脂（RP Resin）、LED、數位輸出等媒材技法，應用在其各系列作品的創作探討中，使得原不相屬的對比媒材在互補激盪中綻放令人驚喜之奇妙視覺經歷，亦展現當代工藝創作應有的時代思維與多元面貌。
除了陸續嘗試以裝置性的表現手法於裝飾產品與器物擺件的金工創作中，她也擴大了金工創作尺度於大型公共藝術的規劃與製作中。近年更持續參與國際展出發表，並戮力於將數位媒體輔助工藝創作的概念導入自身的創作與教學之中，試圖結合數位科技與工藝傳統，展現當代工藝應有的時代特色與多元面貌。她亦嘗試釐清過往世俗以珠寶產業的商業性視角看待金工創作的失焦與混濁狀況，更期盼透過彰顯金工創作的精神內容與美學價值，為當代金工藝術（Arts of Contemporary Metalsmithing）之定位重新導航，企圖為金工與工藝創作清楚建構其專屬譜系，宣揚以傳統工藝為基底佐以科技美學為新器的新工藝精神。