beth

lucky is that question for me?? ! how much virtue in wonderful hand made persuits? unspeakable amounts. undefineable :)

Thanks Ian - its not been the most fantastic day :) what i might do ( i have been thinking about it ) i cant really (definately should NOT) buy the exotic fibreglass birds, BUT i may go and photograph them, and i will upload them and i will try to persuade you of their value :) lets you me and alan go into business exporting anvils and presses then :) cant imagine there is much money in it though after the shipping.... ? !!

ian - i hope my post did not sound cross!!! thought about my comment/tone of voice, on the school run and if you knew me well you would know i just do jib a bit about the whole sexism thing :) i thankyou for your comment above - and apologise for being such a d. head :) (are we allowed to say d. head......?) you just got to see The parrots with a different pair of glasses on i think... ;)

ian - lets trade :) what do you want ? flypresses?? thankyou for your kind comments, but i Must take you to task on one thing - and it will offer you a window into the mind of most women interested in this subject :) - it is No Coincidence that None (to my knowledge) of the females on here put up their photos!!! it is in an attempt to be taken half seriously.. it is a very hard thing for a man to imagine, because it is entirely different for you lot . :) thats it, feminist sermon over, do not be afraid ;) and im very glad to have met you and that you had some fun here, and also while we're here, alan, ( evans - not sure who this other bloke is.. ) a total pleasure to meet you also sir, and what a wonderful way of working you have - very inspiring and interesting.. a very robust and yet graceful aesthetic :) keep wondering about poor dylan - its rained pretty much ever since you left ian - please send him my regards - a very friendly chap :)

B.P the photos look intriguing and indeed look very hand forged, which i like. im being honest when i say i dont really know what the first pictures are! tools i guess - but from a sculptural point of view fabulous shapes and textures, and like i said - a bit intriguing :) and i did not realise you did lessons and all that - looks like you have a captive audience!! how fantastic :) minds to MOULD! i always think though, a teaching situation is the best learning curve ever to find yourself in! sure the learning is two way :)

that sounds wonderful john i will try my best to see it - have put it in the diary :)

im going to propose, that he will be actually good in it........

B.P. i would really like to know what kind of work your doing, what it looks like.....

i keep thinking about that curved anvil..... you can imagine cant you?? better direct contact?..... i like these concepts very much :) keeps a smile on my face oddly enough....

the telling is in the feeling! i need to try!

your last statement has to be true, and thats a good a reason as any to investigate ancient forging methods... i would be really interested to see some of the work that your making with your curved anvil and this style of hammer - your personal evolution with your hammer discovery sounds very interesting and satisfying! so how would you describe your wishes for the work? is there an aesthetic that results, however subtle from these tools, that is peculier to them and their integrity in the whole process, their close suitability to what your making, as well as philosophical reasons. ? you speak very clearly about your interest so its interesting to hear more! thankyou in advance.. :)

blacker - the flowery things sound nice ;)

ok im really interested in anything that looks very differently shaped from the normal, and what the benefits are - esspecially when these designs are taken from ancient tools that had to Do It All, with no help from anything powered. i imagine these had to be very efficient and manage alot of tasks. i wish i could ask you some intelligent questions about the hammers, but i cant really i dont know enough about the finer details of the way a hammer works, i want to know how it feels to use, and why You like to use and make this hammer, and what kind of work you are doing with them and why :) i like the thought of a hammer that you have a very close relationship with and can do many subtle things with ! can you tell us what the physical experience of using a hammer this this is like for you, compared to the type of things you would normally expect to see a smith using and more precisely why you like using it. i see that there is all the physics stuff which youve explained in detail, and i will reread that when i have not got a thousand people around me, and try to understand that. to me it looks like an axe..

i am amazed and bewildered why so many of you dont like skulls???? whats not to like??!! the skull is an icon, and an incredibely powerful image - Love it randy, and the tools look just as cool as the finished item, for me :)

nicely out frosty - the beauty of that anvil Does sing :) so the more deformation you actually want, the more this convex face will start to work for you.. the forgework i do is nowhere near the amount of deformed i would like it to be! when you have so much choice of guage and profile, as many of us do, you have to go out of your WAY avoid to get the massive amounts of 'plastico' deformation that make something look and be so special. this is i suppose skilled smithing, and like i said i dont have those skills yet. i have romantic notions of material worked all over its surface as being way better, as having higher virtue because of the imprint of human hand all over and into the fabric of the piece. because you have to be in such close contact with the material for this type of work and have such a knowledge of how the material moves to get it to flow and be good, its like any skilled "craft" where the movements of your hands directly and effectively alter the shape of the material. yep theres definately virtue in that for me!

you think the machine made anvils lost the hand /body scale/ body made thing? a valuable ingredient that we have let slip away with our anvils?

just as i read that i can IMAGINE what that feels like, and also, it so obvious when you said the reason!!!! so this is quite mad to have a flat face then.... i can imagine for drawing out, but do you not need any section flat ever? the long edge is flat enough maybe? i suppose the point where you strike is small.... my physics is not very strong... :) it sounds like it is a more dynamic making the whole forging thing more effective and plasticine.. ? i would love to try the difference!

this method sounds very cool and simple and tactile. i guess your doing it by eye, which i would say is the best way! i remember trying to use polystyrene years ago at college but it was indeed very large grained and held a lot of static and stuck to everythign! horribel! and i was told it lets off a lot of gas when you cut into it too , i never found out if this is true but i didnt like the sound of it. can you tell me convex top of your anvil and why this is on ancient anvils and not often deliberately seen now? i dont have enough smithing experience to figure out why a rounded top is better particularly, although as ive said i love the shape!

dancho, this is so much the same as or has many corresponding similarities to how i like to look at drawing (and other things) about the light Intent as well as touch, so your not labouring against many thoughts, but are working unconsciously as much as possible so in Your Flow.. the state where the most and the best is achieved, and with the best feeling. so with forgework this comes partly through repetiton ( alot i think through that) so that the muscles take on a memory of their own, to do with the movement your doing, till it becomes natural, and Stored! when the moto skills are taken care of, the creative or the Other can come in more easily, and even that,can have the lightest of touches (using your language )so that after any preliminary planning is done, the materials and the tools play a part in the language and ultimately the 'words' of the finished piece. if these are within your palms in your fingers, they are so much nearer the brain connections or the nerve endings ( i wish i knew about biology! ) the intent or the instinct is directly through hand to tool. i have been thinking about also, the debate amoungst artists of where the value lies with computor art , so the ipad drawing etc that has beocme very popular. my thoughts, although this does seem to be a lot of fun, and any fluidity youve gained from drawing repetiton and observation can still come into play, i reckon you just DO lose a bit in translation, it remains one dimensional however fancy the software, the sense are deprived partly, there is no Noise of the pencil, the actual graphite grinding off onto the surface of the paper, the texture of paper, the skin of your hand on the work, and associated smells if you want to get right into it! the visual is certainly not the entire experience.. then the line you make, (where you have already lost a bit of touch of how the line got there and where it came from, ) has to appear under the glass or whatever it does, broken into pixels (however small or detailed ) its then the whole digital/ analogue argument, and to me there is No arguement!! i am trying to talk about too many subjects here as usual, but the essence and the thread, runs through all creative things you choose to do with your hands, its about transferal of unique energy i guess, which after all is all we have as makers that sets us different from anyone else! the most direct path - everytime!! apologies for waffley post :)

i have to add though, that in no way am i dismising powered tools in terms of expression, i have recently had a great time with my phammer making almost accidental marks on the metal, and have been very excited by some of the results. i am liking the mistakes, so, where the material slips, and judders, and creates a very unplanned mark/texture. this i want to continue with, becasue it is exciting and might offer ways to express the nature of material, but i would like to clarify what is essentially an instinct about working in scale, and what actually results from that. what is the BEST that results from that. :) physically and philosophically. . COME BACK JAKE! this is one for YOU!!

dancho im really so glad to hear that aesthetics came into your design, and as it IS your design may i officially congratulate you! i have never been able to understand why a tool cannot also have a deliberately administered beauty! the first pair of tongs i made successfully (it did take a while...) i chose to decorate with a heart shaped rivet, and it makes me love them that much more. shape and decoration are powerful!!! (i have cast things before, and Had them cast for me, the last option at some expense ( art works) but i have talked to somebody recently about this poly.. method - it sounds very good and kinda cheaper! is polystyrol similar to polystyrene ? i am guessing it is finer/denser grain to carve into ..? in which case i really would like to try to make sculpture from it.. do you think it would be suitable medium for sculpture use? ) i am very keen to read others thoughts and yours on the whole subject of small scale forging (or working in general with your hands..?) and tools in scale with ones body. its an interesting subject, esspecially when we can be so easily tempted into thinking large expensive tools are to be envied! i think prat of the beauty of using tools in relation to your body size, is that, in a creative way, you can express more directly into the material, expression is mainly what im interested in. the direct nature of the mark making and manipulation is surely lost by bigger and bigger degrees (maybe) the larger and more disproportionately powerful the tools your using? your own energy transfering directly (as directly as possible - shortest distance) "as the crow flies" rather than through energy absorbing tooling? i am thinking out loud, but like i said i am at the moment talking to my friend about these things, and the subject is in the front of my brain. i like this whole idea and will happily engage in conversation about it all! :)

nice one big foot - i can visualise that lovely. .very useful :)

john - could you explain that last bit again please about the groove ? im not clear...

that is funny - my friend just emailed me these pictures :) i m not aware really of the minutiae of how great this thing is regarding blade making and stuff but its Soo beautiful simple and beautifully formed, like a work of art, i really like the looks and the style of the anvil, and how it is transported!! so cool. dancho did you make this one (the anvil) and the hammers yourself? ? can you talk a bit about the hammers for me? i really like looking at the different anvils, although i only have one very large clumsy one myself which i use, they take on a kind of cartoon-like illustrative quality which makes me want them!! i like the curves and lines, combined with the ULTIMATE use for working all manner of jobs. whats not to love.....