tzonoqua

Hi Dave,

Welcome.

That is a neat set up - similar to which I have experienced in India. (Although the Indians did it bare foot!!) Looks like you have a nice thing going. BTW, Your dog is lovely- I have a half lurcher too.

Colleen

Gobae and Aeneas,

was just reading through this thread and saw the comments about having to forge on knees vs. squatting position-

I have experience working in India using an earth forge, very similar to that pictured. The Indians always worked in a squat position and were incredibly adept and nimble at forging in this manner. They could jump up and displayed amazing agility in this position.The anvil was sometimes raised and strikers would stand depending on the item being forged.

If you look at societies (tribal) that live very close to nature, you find that many of them adopt this squatting position. If you watch babies and children, it is a natural way for the human body to move, we westerners tend to lose this way of using our bodies because we do things like sit in chairs, etc. I found it ridiculously difficult at first, but soon got used to it as the muscles/tendons in my legs stretched.

Ancient Celtic society and these blacksmiths in Rajasthan may be very different in culture and very far away from each other in geographical distance, and I am also no expert but the similarities struck me when I read your posts.

Oh, and regards to using cloth for a sun shade, you can buy flame retardant sprays to treat the cloth (I used to use a product called Flamebar on canvases I painted with good results)

- Colleen

Hello, Although I have not used a Telwin Mig, I have used a Telwin Inverter Arc welder for a year and a half, and love it. It's a portable "handbag" sized welder and totally suits my needs. Never had a problem with it. (Touch wood)

Telwin may not be very common in the USA, but more common in Europe as I believe it is an Italian company but I am sure it all gets made in China- (doesn't everything??)

a Telwin Mig may or may not suit your needs, probably depends (like anything) on what you will use it for and how much you will use it.

As always Adrian, a standard to aspire to.

Hello Devon Blacksmith, I have PM'd you.

So, is anything going on in the month of November in Southern Ontario-? (I am returning to the home country for a wee visit, I'll be in the Niagara Region.)

ps. ertwdan, I love that proverb!

-Colleen

I have been of the view for a while that I just didn't have the time to make tongs, I would rather spend my time/energy working on either my art or commission work. So I have bought tongs along the way and often been disappointed with the performance of them, which usually means discovering that they are far too heavy to be useable for me. I have made a couple pairs of simple tongs in the past, but since then never really challenged myself.

After reading this thread last week, and all of the arguments for and against, I decided to "put my money where my mouth was" so to speak. I decided to make a set of tongs to hold the flat discs that I make flowers from (I make an awful lot of flowers) with long reins to avoid the dragons breath.

You know what, It only took me about 30 mins, and I was fairly satisfied with the result. Next time I would alter them a wee bit, but it just goes to show that sometimes we get stuck in a way of thinking... but this is why I love this site.
-Colleen

Very impressive, looks like a lot of attention to detail in those flowers! What have you used to finish the steel to keep it from rusting? (or is it stainless?)
-Colleen

Thanks for the comments!

I spent quite a while composing step by step instructions, and then managed to lose it somehow- (i think instead of hitting post reply I must have clicked on preview and then closed the page, and thus lost it all!!) so Ill write it out again- but the kids are home from school now so it'll have to wait until I have spare moment!!

Colleen

Hello All,
It's been a while since I posted, moved house and had a long delay in getting broadband sorted at my new place. Here are some pics of work I've been doing- The gates I finished months ago but never posted a finished pic.
Boxing Hares and Ear of Wheat went into a local exhibition, the Red Squirrel was supposed to join them, but is now living happily in my garden!

I made the mistake a few weeks ago of buying cheap files, I should have spent the extra money- but my favoured brand - Vallorbe (superior Swiss made files) was not on special and the other ones were. I bought the other ones, and now regret it. I think the term is "False Economy"

"Measure twice, cut once" -- not sure where it came from, but my Dad always said it and it has stuck.
-Colleen

Wow Adrian!! Those are great- both completely jumping out at you and yet still fitting in with the surrounding greenery! Did you paint them yourself, what kind of paint did you use? Look forward to seeing the next set!
Colleen

So how boring am I?? My workshop and house are "The Forge" the house dates from 1690. I dont know how long they have been "The Forge" but there has been a smithy here at least since 1850

I am in a similar situation- I work from "The Old Smiddy" which has been that for many many years, and before it was "old" it was just "The Smiddy", and who am I to come along and rename it? (Smiddy being the Scots equivalent to Smithy, in case any of you thought I had misspelled it!)

Rather than call it boring I call it "being respectful of tradition" I did however toy with the idea of naming the Gallery as a separate entity, but reached the conclusion it wasn't neccessary and would only confuse people.

I do however use my own name when referring to my work- in publicity and on business cards - As in myself Colleen du Pon working from the Old Smiddy.

Hello Hollis,

Not sure if this will help or not, but does your internet service provider give you free webspace? I know most do here in the UK, but I am not sure about over the pond.

I use my free webspace (50mb) and as I use an apple computer I made my website using iWeb, which is simple to use- drag and drop. I just ftp it to my webspace and point my domain to that page with web forwarding.

I think I pay around

It's brilliant Adrian! Totally unique. Must have been a lot of fun to design and make.
- Colleen

hey, John B. Would love to take part in something like this but where I am (in the UK) doesn't come close !

Larry,
Looks like you are free to make your mark on the neighbourhood! Who knows, neighbours might get jealous and commission you to make some metalwork for them too. I know a guy who made a rail for one house, and then a year later had done something for almost every house on the same street!

I second what Valentin said, repetitive forms can be easier with the help of jigs. Trying to get unique assymetrical designs to fit is often time consuming and very frustrating!
-Colleen

Hi Larry,

I always find a good place to start is to have a look around your immediate area to find any relevant local examples of metalwork- period etc? Is there any existing metalwork that you could expand upon? Is there something in the locale, a motif that you could use? Does your house have a name? Is there predominant architectural feature you could use somehow (arches, etc)? All of these things, and more, the list is endless that you could think about during the design process. Then you can have these in mind whilst researching different gate designs so you can maybe take elements from some that tie into a theme, for lack of a better word.
Hope this helps.

metalmangeler- apparently one of the 'sins' (not charging enough) that I am often guilty of too!! Definitely with these gates I underpriced myself, oh well, live and learn.

Animal print tooling sound very interesting!!

I've got one of those big old shoes out in the workshop- it was given to me by my local farrier who donates his shoes to me (well, not HIS shoes, but the ones he pulls off horses:))

It was completely covered in rust- apparently had been sitting in someone's barn for years. I put it in some preparatory rust remover to clean it up and forgot about it for a few days. (Very silly of me.) I will take a pic tomorrow, its definitely made of wrought iron as the grain has been etched - wow what a texture!

It is a shame that these heavy breeds are in decline, such beautiful things.

My grandfather, a Friesian Farmer, used to make miniature replica wagons similar to the one pictured earlier. We used to play with it when we were kids, hitch the "team'' of china horses to it and get into BIG trouble from my grandma!!

-Colleen

Hello,
Thought I'd post a pic of the gates, nearly finished now!! Just another leaf to forge, drop bars, latch and a couple of mice to sit amongst the grain.



And also been filling orders for local shops/galleries for flowers and some flower and leaf candlesticks.



-Colleen

Hmmmm...

I spent three years in a degree discussing (arguing) about this topic. My degree subject, BA (Hons) Fine Art- Silversmithing and Metalwork. Was it a degree in Craft or Fine Art? I still don't know, a bit of both I reckon, although it depended on which tutor I was speaking to. Imagine doing a degree in such and being told by your tutor, "No one appreciates the hand made in our post modern world".

(Perhaps that bitter, jaded old woman got stuck being a tutor because no one appreciated her handmade work and she couldn't make it as an artist/craftsperson in her own right, therefore subjecting students to her negative attitudes re:craft, I wonder). Perhaps she took that view so that I could argue with her and refine my own ideas about what it is I do (but I don't think so). I digress..

Best to conceptualize they said- make it art, not lowly craft. The term "Craft" holds connotations of grannies knitting sweaters, or stuck on macaroni pictures done by four year olds. Oh, poor, lowly craft, and thus the word became unfashionable.

I think, In my humble opinion, that the word Craft has actually made a comeback. (and thus perhaps never really went away in the first place)

When I have spent time and energy making a set of gates, I might call it Craft. Sometimes I call it Art, but most often I just refer to it as my work, and let others be the judge. When I have spent time and energy making a sculpture of which the ideas come straight out of my head, I will call it Art, I am not so inclined to call it Craft, but also, am more than likely to refer to it as my work. When I have spent time and energy making a hook, I will invariably call it Craft. It really is merely a hierarchy of lexicon.

What is the difference between art and craft, I still don't know. How long is a piece of string, anyway? :confused:

What I do know is that there ARE people out there in our post-modern world that DO appreciate the handmade.

- Colleen

wow, eagle eyes andy!

Frosty - I once did a bit for TV, a home makeover show called HomeFront on the BBC. I made a tree candleholder for a swanky bespoke kitchen/conservatory. They filmed me forging parts of it and the director kept telling me to get my face closer to the fire so that they could get a reflection of the flames in my goggles. I told him to come and put his face next to the fire before he asked me to do the same.:mad: (He didn't, and I don't think he wanted to argue with a woman with a hammer in one hand and a hot bit of steel in the other:D)
So I am sure that the photographer played a part in staging- especially since that article is for a notoriously conservative newspaper (with a page three girl and all!).

- Colleen

wow, great work, and slick website too.