Who Plays Violin, another of Huang's works. SUN RUISHENG/CHINA DAILYGentleman
Homeless Dog, a sculpture he made in 2012 using Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti's work as a prototype, is one of the works he regrets selling the most.
"I sold it for 400 yuan ($60). I tried to make a new one but failed. I could hardly get the feel for it," he said.
When Huang was away, his business partner Li sold another of his favorites, the horse-like sculpture Charge Knight.
"On hearing the news, I headed back to Beijing immediately and asked to buy it back for a much higher price. The buyer, however, asked for at least 50,000 yuan and I didn't have that much money," he said.
"I should have bought it back then, as I don't know where it is anymore. You can only come by some materials with luck and the things that I made that sculpture with cannot compare with what I find today."
Despite his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for creating metal sculptures, Huang struggles to make ends meet.
"I make about 4,000 yuan a month from my job as a teacher, but I usually use that money to buy scrap metal for my art," he said.
"I spend more than 60,000 yuan a year on buying waste steel and 15,000 yuan on renting the workshop, let alone expenses."
It's not all doom and gloom, however. A generous patron gave him 30,000 yuan to support his artistic endeavors.
"I will not sell any of them, though I am often visited by buyers interested in my works," Huang said, while gently stroking his sculptures.
Metal sculpting was, for a time, somewhat of a fad in China - first springing up around the turn of the millennium.
But according to Huang, many artists have now quit and those that remain simply replicate well-known works like characters from the Transformers film franchise, as they try to make a fast buck.
For him, metal sculptures should not merely be artworks, they should also convey aspects of the culture they represent and the passing of time. "Phased-out machinery and farm tools such as planters, reapers and threshers are memories of a bygone era. But their life can be extended if we change them into works of art. The benefits of such artistic creation is beyond measure," he said.
