beth

nice macbruce - always mesmeric watching leaves appear!! thats pretty much how i do mine, except you leave a nice ridge up the middle... more food for thought :) thanks for filming that

they are ALL fabulous looking - such fantastic evocative shapes, but macbruce - that church window thing is amazing!!!!

they are beautiful! they all look inspiring to me - works of cutting art :) nice one!

daniel thats brilliant! i love that youve bothered to do that, you have Defineately put some serious effort in there. Love it! and the finished article shows what the fuss is all about. looks wonderful :)

YYF thats great! i had a boyfriend once that used to stuff his estate car full of sheep... animals in cars is funny :)

:) good job its only my hammer i swing :D

thanks randy :) i LOVED that thing you made, it looks like very finely made work, id love to see more pictures...

is it? i think i like that :)

its really cute!! i think i AM hammeronogamous... does that mean i will use anything??? indescriminately...??? :o

thankyou very much gentlemen rusty - hopefully it WILL keep the beastie children in - and big foot if you lived near me, i would Insist you ate the pies :) yves - yes the colourful painted work i would like to see more often, here is one by brian russell from uk i think it looks amazing.. here is my BLACK piece finished :)...i would have liked it two or three colours... Next time maybe :)

your so right big foot - its not obvious how difficult this is until you try to do it yourself...

really Sweet YYF i think thats lovely. proper job. i love the way youve done the feet..

yeah welcome lars, good to have more women smiths :) but male or female - you'll be in good company here :)

thankyou guys :) - randy it Has to be black annoyingly, to match some other stuff - im taking slight offence to paint at all, but i must admit your description of the mixed colours sounds wonderful, and coloured ironwork i think about a lot... people dont always (ever - it seems ) want it though!!! and that picture! i love it!@ is it yours - is beautiful and inspiring. love it!

thanks for your comments of encouragement you lot - thomas in answer to your question i dont know, i Hope they will be strong enough, at any rate the children will not be allowed to climb on the gate, even i have been told off there for jumping over the wall! they are fairly strict... so hopefully that wont happen! :) yves - i really like your blog post and the clear showing of your method - i think you should post it separately to get it on the forum properly under its own heading - planning is something i am not used to much as an artist in other materials - but im finding more and more that in this area the work benefits hugely :) the care youve taken along the way has made that project a joy. i also am intrigued that iron takes on organic form under the hammer and on the anvil. :) its where the motivation to learn comes from isnt it? thanks for posting that :)

Ha! it looks like he is doing that thing where you make your teeth go dry so your lip gets stuck. like a dog... on that note - feel like i have digressed your thread enough captain.. let disscussion on the bottle opener commence... :)

am intrigued....! violence aint particularly my thing, i have to say, but art forms are... so that guy with the hat is not who we are talking to?!!

thats the thing captain - its the learning and the process, absolutely, that is important and vital - and like you said, applying the new information/skills next time. the items are nice bonus's along the way :) the learning curve is very steep in this craft - which is i guess why we all love it so much! your avatar, by the way, is very far out! is that a tiny weeny hat???

here is what ive just finished - its a panel for a gate for a primary school.. this was all apart from the outside strip of flat, forged down from 3/4 inch square. i am still painting it black for them, but it looks nicer like this to me... what i have learned in this piece is that i am thoroughly bored and tired of welds and grinding and i will DEFINATELY be braver with my trad joining methods in future... i just need to stop and THINK before i start :)Plan Ahead a little... thats my new years resolution (ish) happy christmas you lot - im going to make mince pies now - thats me done :)

hey captain - thats not at all a disaster!!! what you on about? its your first attempt so is not the prettiest thing on gods earth - but you should not be concerned about that :) you have used your new tools to great use and have Majorly Manipulated a piece of iron into something you can use... and ( i quote - near enough) "the best fun ive had in ages" captain - i salute you :) as one guy on here says all day long - carry on :)

woody your funny :)