Where do elves get metal?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I think the fact that Elves are portrayed as "constantly elegant" does not mean that they are squeamish or contemptuous of dirty work, but rather that the work for them is not dirty at all. They are just creative beings, and they turn everything into creation, into art. Arranging food on platters is an art, not a service. Mining is also an art, and a rather skill-demanding one. And good metalwork (and I therefore presume good metal extraction from the ground) is a skill that's honoured, so perhaps it's not as lowly as you make it sound.

I think this is a very good way of looking at it, and ties nicely to Professor Tolkien's literary influences from arts-and-crafts supporter William Morris. In Morris' utopian text News from Nowhere, the "problem of labour" has been eliminated because all labour is now art.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Elves don't seem to make industries for anything. They don't make more things for the sake of making more; they make just as much as they need for the foreseeable future.

Yes, this seems like it. Letter 131 captures these points about the Elves well:

"Their 'magic' is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation."

I think "industry" comes under that second type, "domination and tyrannous re-forming", in Professor Tolkien's view.