Rose Insitu
One of things I love(and hate) about about blacksmithing is being challenged. How does one go about making something they have never made before? Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but it is also good for educating yourself. I always bemoan my lack of training, so many others have way more training in this than I. Years of fancy arts college, then working for some awesomely talented established smith, learning their chops at the knee of some Olde Worlde Master in Czech, Germany or England. Slaving away as an apprentice, gaining the vast and arcane knowledge of this craft that I have only just scratched the surface of...Gawd it makes me nuts!!!!And bitter apparently...ha!
When Iam not being bitter and jealous, I have to invent, research and just come up with things on my own. Sometimes out of my own wild imagination...that's where the "artistic" part of artist blacksmith comes in.
Roses for a shop sign. I did some research, and dug up all the many ways one can make roses.
There are a lot. Some mind boggle-ingly cool and time consuming..Some I need to see made in the flesh first so I could ken the tecnique...Some just too.. well...ugly. Some kind of what I was wanting..In the end I just figured it out for myself.
Wild Roses
So I got some pipe, heat it and did things to it. Cutting out petals, shaping them with the hammer, fussing about until I had what I wanted. I used the large lobes of my brain, and figured out how to make wild roses..I didn't want to spend a million years on them, but I wanted them to look nice. Now I don't know if this is how they make roses in Praugue, but it worked for me.
All the pics I took were blurry, so no step by step Iam afraid. I can't take a pic to save my life, it seems to be a genetic affliction...
That all said,
There is nothing as good , well maybe laughing with friends or smooching the Hubbinator, as successfully creating something . When the image in your head is made real , your holding it in your hands, looking at it in this dimension..It's so satisfying.
Thank the Gawds I only had to make three.
5 comments:
Hello :) I found your blog via the recent comment you left on Catherine Sherman's blog-- had to see what such a caring soul wrote about on her blog. Enjoyed reading a bit of your blog here!! :) Keep up the pursuit (blacksmithing) and look on the bright side... learning it largely on your own now, you might just discover something original and beautiful rather than following someone else's "recipe." :) Enjoy the process- you're doing great.
wow - no more introspection now - those are truly something to behold. How do you even begin to do that??!!
Dear Kenna=Thank you for the sweet words. I am the kind of person who cannot stand to see suffering, human or animal.
Iam so glad you came by to check out my blog..
Paula= Thank you. Well, I see it in my head, then I have to engineer it out of the steel..that's all I can say. Your an artist, you know what Iam talking about...It's so hard to explain.
Oh Iam still having my midlife questioning, but I see that this is what Iam supposed to do..:)
What! Bitter because you've been spared the pretentiousness of art school (where you wouldn't have learned any forgework), or missed out on the abuse and sexism of the apprenticeship system? :-)
"Self-taught" carries no credibility but there is a unique artistic satisfaction and spiritual strength to be found in creating your own path, even if you're the only one walking it.
Well spoken Lorena!
All my freinds who attended art school with a fancy "a" complain that they learned nothing practical, or the technical skills to help them realise their art. Ahhh...the sexism...well...don't get me started.."Women cannot be blacksmiths!" (actual quote) just like we can't be doctors, scientists, fine painters, or free to follow our talents and will?
Ha.
Thank you for your words, good to hear them right now.
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