reluctant master

 

james viste

 

I first met James Viste a few years ago when I was teaching at Penland. James was teaching in the Iron Studio at Penland at the time. I really enjoyed speaking with him. I'm glad to see him doing his own thing at his personal studio now. I'm happy to see it when people are able to be their own boss and walk the line they choose to walk. Freedom...

more rachel spoon dies

Rachel and I had a great time working in the studio on Friday. We talked about a ton of things as we always do. I love our conversations about craft and object making. We made some progress on some aluminum dies for spoons as well as milling a steel form block that she'll try out to create a serving spoon with a spine form that gets formed with the spoon bowl is flat and then she will shape it manually. The aluminum dies are being used to fine tune our shapes to get ready for some steel dies. I'm anxious to see this big flat form dies develop. We have plans to cut a lot more of these in different styles. Her recent TIG welded copper funnels are looking pretty sweet too. Sorry I didn't get any pics of the enameled funnels. They're pretty sweet. Look for those on her instagram and follow.

seth's studio

Before we left Penland, I drove Chuck up to Seth's studio. Seth was so kind to show us his most recent work. Every time I talk to Seth, I am just amazed at him and his work. I just don't think there is anyone that can compare to Seth and his work. He is really setting himself a part from the rest of the crowd. Chuck pretty much summed it up when he said, "you mean he makes all this work just with the tools you see here in his studio?". And I replied, "YES, he forges and files pretty much everything." I know I've praised Seth's work and I'll do it again...because it DESERVES it! 

peter ross demo

I came across this great video where Peter Ross conducts a blacksmithing demo. I saw Peter make a key for a lock at a Blacksmithing conference at SIU-C in 2005. The key looked liked it had been turned on a lathe as it was so precise, when in fact he had just used a hammer and anvil to forge and shape the entire piece. Hang in to the end on this video; you'll be glad you did. I love the part about using an imprecise object (hammer) to make a precise object (compass). I'm really interested in the idea of precision and the idea as is applies to pre-industrial revolution objects. I think some of this is going to feed back into my ideas on the role of technology as it applies to craft practices. The older I get the more I realize that I don't know nearly as much as I wish I had the time to learn, and that the thoughts and opinions I have now are less concrete than they were when I was younger (I guess that's just youth and arrogance). As I get older I feel that I need seek to understand what came before me with more clarity and understand "making" with more depth so I can better understand where we as humans currently are headed. I begin to think that early civilization had more things figured out before the motivation of "making" became more focussed on mass production and standardization. 

Anyway, food for thought...

rachel and elizabeth brim

Man, this made me cry when I saw Rachel. Rachel came up through Foundations and then Metals with me at UWM. She was featured with Erik Darbo on the Chancellor's medallion video when she was a student. She always had the best attitude and she just an amazing maker! I have been so proud to be able to have had the privilege to first work with her and then witness her development as she worked for Smithshop, as an assistant to Seth Gould, and now as a student in the Core Fellowship program at Penland. This video was the "icing on the cake" and just made me so proud to see her in this element alongside Elizabeth Brim.

dad's forge

I'm currently building a few gas forges with John and Chad. I'll have a big blog post coming soon about this. While I was home, I thought I would grab some pics of the forge my Dad built a little over 20 years ago. You might notice that even after many hours of use, the paint fairly burned off of the tank it was made from.