beth

i really like that mac! lovely to see a well thought out and finished sculpture - i love the shapes and the weighty- looking -ness of the ladle shape, also the little horns on the bottom strap are a great detail. the section in picture three is fab - its delicious! i think the sharp bits really look good, the arrow heads and spikes, it is not what you'd expect :)

no. only he can make that work :)

ahhgggghhh!! i cant have a bad word said about this man !!! sorry. anything he does goes down great with me :)

thankyou kustom and camero :) always encouraging when people are positive ! :)

razz - i share your oppinion - i Never know how to do the things i try to do. and you learn Very quickly that way :)

fairplay razz you made what he asked for! i trained for years with staffs but only wood - i like the spring and dont want huge shoulders :) but many of my more Commited friends used every training aid they could in steel... :)

thankyou for your comments - i hope the children will use it :) i never met the lady who died, but i heard all kinds of lovely things about her from the other teachers. by the end of the few weeks i felt like i knew her.

thanks nuge and colleen - i originally planned to use the 25mm textured round as edging for the plate, on the backs of the seats and the bit you sit on, which i think would have added visual weight, i agree thats what it needed - but i ran out of time. it was a funny project, with odd constraints, like i said before i had very little time to think properly about what i wanted to do!

thanks for the comments you lot - ive been on holiday! im pleased enough with the work, but you need to learn what you did wrong in order to improve eh! i dont take on many blacksmithing jobs, (do all kinds of different things) so i try to learn in the biggest chunks i can manage, and this was a bit tricky. but thats ok! :)

this is a seat i made recently for a school in memory of a teacher who sadly died. all the forged stuff is out of 40mm or 25mm which was all textured, and the flat plate is 10mm and 8mm. on the seat (and i dont have very good pictures ! you can just see on the last photos) are lots of copper leaves with words that the children gave me about their teacher stamped onto them. the long curved sections were tricky for me because once they were no longer straight, they were a bit difficult to hold and work with gravity twisting them and all that. i spray painted it myself in the workshop this time which i was pleased with it was way quicker than my usual hand painting... i had to do this job in a Real Hurry!!! i had about 4 weeks to do it all including designing, which was a bit of a compromise and not really long enough. im pleased enough with the forged stuff at the top, but am not at all pleased with the plate bits ! i wont do that again... thought i would post it anyway :)

those are lovely! they would look great made in silver for jewellery. really like them :)

yeah you have got this creature nailed jk - he looks great! :) the different steps laid out always make an interesting post too.

sam its a lovely idea - i know nothing in any way to help you with the project, but im sending good luck, and because it means so much, it will have the best of you in it, and will undoubtedly honour your young brother. sam - remember the other advice - hope you tried it :)!!

hand made beauty !! hope all good with you dancho :)

bryan you are so right - we need it more than ever with the nonsense of our modern lives. nature does bring peace, even when it seems a bit raw. lovely idea for a thread i like seeing what everyone sees out of their windows :)

cant help myself ... :ph34r: regards yourself :)

thanks ian - i like taking pictures. they seem to be everywhere :) i have billions ...

i like this thread :) i love all your place names they are so romantic!!!! here is what my area looks like in ye olde shires :) i love it.

great photo frank! gives an idea of what massive force we try to fight with the ocean..!

bryan that looks so beautiful! very different to what i see when i look out the window! stunning..

yes - i agree - its ALL exciting :) its great when you can enjoy the details and process of your every day life :)

that sounds really good john - i think my interests lie slightly off centre, this is for people entirely focused on this craft at the expense of all else! would be really interested in what happens though. sounds like a fantastic opportunity to be grabbed with both hands by someone keen on making this their focus.. go for it tom!!

all makes sense - just lovely to make and use something like that - i think its really beautiful, looks like a human being made it with enthusiasm and love - cant beat that :) love how you made it so decorative when you could have kept it very conservative, the flowers are ace :) thats where the enthusiasm shows.

good idea kurgan, ive always thought the whole craft is very photogenic - you could make something really fascinating. as for more women on calenders, well - i think men is the way to go!! we can safely say the balance in that dept needs a little redressing! :)

yes they certainly ARE pretty :) bet theyre good to handle too.