A very grand gesture, inviting us all over for whiskey and tea and a slice of god’s country, thank you! Your just teasing me with the big hammers as well, maybe you can talk the locals into supporting some public art and we could get busy. I always thought it would be cool to do the classics large scale- wizard head, unfolded cross maybe a big leaf one of those hooks!

Thank you all for your praise, I am high on this girl for sure, something I’ve wanted to do for too long. Beth she is representational but as she comes to life, abstracts are all around me and she is what is real?
Finished her head, forge from 4” billet, got it the first try, looks much like a crow just as you said Jake. I have mixed feelings about the flame wings now, not much time left, we’ll see.

I am in the same position as you Jake, I am preparing for a show, my first solo, the first of September, trying to bring the ideas to a resolution. Finding the vowels were is easy putting them in a word was hard and making a sentence is even more difficult. Hope I have something worthwhile to say.

jake these are for you - see what i mean?
















i thank you so much for your continuing therapy my friend - it does bring out a strong obbsessive streak tho... i love that you can be bothered with all this - so few can!
i also adore your quote - there is surely a lot that can be achieved by the strength of your will and the contraction of your tummy muscles! and i love anything to do with the navy including the rum and the tattoos. esspecially the rum and the tattoos

danger im liking how your talking - and i absolutley hand it to you that she is not at all abstract to you but entirely realistic. i will bow out entirely with my previous puzzlement at this juncture because your latest point is the only real argument isnt it? i too have grown to love her and i do like her fiery wings... i am very excited on your behalf at prospect of a solo exhibition, if you can ignore the b*****x that can accompany such events you will indeed be on a high im certain - the work is accomplished original and sincere, all anyone could ever ask of you. how your public takes the work is not at all in your control, nor should it be i would think.. i wait with interest to hear how you get on. so nice to put the work out there and let it speak for itself. i shake your hand!
im going to try to put a piece of work in an exhibition soon if i can crow bar some/enough time at workshop in , and i will document it fully if your interested.!

now how GOOD would it be to all sit in jakes workshop with some alaskan moonshine, a few roll ups and some splendid discussion? having said that - this thread is a pretty good approximation. jake do you talk with an american voice or a russian one or a pidgeoned hybrid? :)

Danger,you know by now how obnoxious and underhanded i am in my twisted opinions(and proud of it,to boot),i'd say that your doubts and trepidation are natural,and good,and proper,they're a part of the creative process.

The public,their views and(Lord help us!)their opinions,are NOT:)

They'll be there to Listen to YOU,to Learn from You(the smart ones),which is exactly why you're concerned and anxious,and very properly so.But the Public will never catch up that distance that you're ahead by,simply because it's not what they DO,for hours,and months,and years,and that's why they'll be there.
The only thing useful that passes from them to you will be they keeping their mouths shut,again,them will be the smart ones.

In actuality they'll be getting Something out of looking at your work,to whatever degree that each is able to do so.(That is the magic,or a part of,of an artistic creation,it violates the laws of physics by contributing something tangible without diminishing,and with no time limits...).
There will hopefully be that one person with an ability to get lots out of it.That person will be rich,and he/she will then proceed to stingily compensate you for this sculpture.Hopefully,that compensation will be enough for you to last till the next piece is finished,et cetera.(The decent thing to do would be to just go ahead and endow the artist,so that one can just stop thinking about extreneous garbage such as bills,and stick to being creative,but that would never happen).

Such is my nasty,admittedly,attitude.But i truly believe that.I've been to art shows,and know what takes place there.(I've been in a lot of weird situations in my weird life,like drawing bigger than life-size crucifictions and saints on the pavement,in chalk, in some of the largest european cities,crawling around on my hands and knees,collecting coppers in my filthy cap,usually in front of some masterpiece like the Sagrada Familia,in Barcelona...I've lived in New York and have been to many of a twisted art show in the fanciest galleries,also in Boston,where i snuck into and stole drawing lessons in the Boston Musem of Fine Art college...).

So that just for a second there i spoke like an artist,an artist that we all are,but some of us are unwilling to admit to being,for reasons that we'll hopefully continue to discuss here,with you,my wonderful friends!

I've conundrum,as i can think well(enough)in the afternoon,but it's also the middle of my work day.But if i wait till evening,my pea-brain is completely shrivelled up by then,and i hate it,not being able to do justice to this,a MOST valid discussion that often takes place here...

Beth,thank you so much-those braces are way cool!That's fantastic that you notice stuff like that,i can really appreciate being observant in that very way.Structurally and artistically they,these braces,speak volumes,or can!
And,of course,it goes without saying that you should tell us how any confrontation of yours with the public goes,if you can,please!

And,just for the record,30 years in this country nonwithstanding,i speak exactly like the Count,on Sesame Street...(Do you guys watch it in England?)

Beth, thank you so much for the link. That does inspire. I really like that he had the tenacity to work that hard for that long. Really, a great acomplishment.

Jake, ya your right I do that. But, I also want to progress and get better. I do lament from time to time at my lack of tooling. The fact that its all I seem to make sometimes, and my lack of shop time. But, I don't let it stop me and I don't let it get me down. I do keep a postiive attitude and when I do get shop time I make the best of it. I try to use the best techniques I can and even sit with some of my smithing books and read how to's when I am working. Being very careful of course not to smudge the pages. Which fail at miserably. I have a nice little collection. I realise I need forge time to improve and I will get there. I just need to be patient.

Jake, The count huh? One, two, three, HAHAHAHAHA! Too cool! Now when I read your post this is the voice I will hear.

Jake, The count huh? One, two, three, HAHAHAHAHA! Too cool! Now when I read your post this is the voice I will hear.

Strange, his posts don't have an accent

bryan - im glad to hear you keep a positive attitude - its hard when everything you want to make seems to require you to make another tool - i know its good practise bla bla bla and that is so true - but sometimes i done want to wait whilst you find the right material and learn the technique. i am not as patient as you and i should and will try to take a leaf out o f your book! i tend to get rather blue and black and start thinking time is running out and all sorts of over the top things like that which does me NO FAVOURS at all. so i understand what you say!
jake i can totalluy picture you on your hands and knees with your chalk - a sight we see less and less here - but one i love and can look at for ages. its so calm watching someone draw outside. i may try to do some myself one day just to have experienced it - obviously have done lots with my kids like that but not really realy tried to make something beautiful. did make a huge sand croc on the beech recently for some kids who were bored (not mine actually- they were elsewhere) i guess thats the 3d version. was your subject matter entirely religious? if so why so?
and as for the count - OF COURSE we know seseme street - its wicked ! and the muppets! love love love em! i dont actually beleive you but i desperately want to - convince me jake - that would be too good to be true....! bryan - you know him - does he really sound like the count??
in some kimd of parrallel ( i am fond of drawing them) i was called gonzo from the muppets by some when i was a little girl on account of my roman nose... i think looking back it was an unkind and extreme exaggeration of the facts ! i like to think now it is a noble and strong nose, and something i sport happiley i do love those puppet animals they are so ace...

glad you liked the wall fixings - i like them for many reasons, to do with their function and physical appearance, but also to do with the kind of imagined pressure i guess that i feel wheni look at them, the weight and pressure of stuff, the wall whatever it might be made of..i similarly get right into buttresses, flying and otherwise - again i like the whole support /pressure situation, and the lovely way they look like they are doing exactly what they are infact doing.. like these with dovecotes...




also some internal later added butress type additions in glos cathedral..




have you lot heard of deep pressure therapy - ? its a type of treatment for kids with asbergers or autism who respond to deep pressure - so they basically press them with stuff and put lead blankets on them etc and it calms them hugely and is the answer to alot of their issues.
apparently lots of us respond to deep pressure, autism issues aside - my friend who deals with it all said she noticed by my body language that i was one of those people the other day when we were out, like you might cross your legs while talking and squash one of your hands under your leg, of if your in cinema seats you would bridge the gap by putting your feet on chair infront and create a loop of pressure - basically situations with your body that involve voluntary pressure that you create yourself in order to feel comfortable! you also commonly fidget if there is not some pressure. this is starting to sound weird - its not! you can look this stuff up - lots of documentation out there!!! honest! anyway - the pojnt of all that was to say - to anywone still awake - that i think its something similar why i like those buttresses and braces on buildings - there is a reassuring sense of pressure visually and in the imagination. that extra thought just came to me as to why i like em jake ! :)

blimmin heck john! fantastic! look at the shapes!... particularly love the simpler ones at the end - so SWEET, lovely lines. i think our russian friend will have lose the plot with gothic ecstasy.... is that really all on your scrap pile???

John,that is EXTREMELY decent and kind of you to've gone through the trouble of making photos of this great bunch of stuff.I'll have to look at all this many times more,though already have learned a GREAT deal,this is absolutely fantastic.Thank you so much,and i'd love to ask some questions,by and by,as i try to process some of the impressions.

Now i really see what you meant by rivets or BOLTS!Those are some cool bolts,for sure!
I did switch tacks and gone with rivets,as what you've said made a lot of sense.I've also re-designed some other aspects(and may rethink more stuff based on these photos yet!).

Thank you,so much.

Beth,all that you say about pressure is an exellent thought,simply because the TACTILE approach is ever the most sensible.Ironwork in particular,just by looking at it one is almost physically quantifying all that mass,it's distribution,it's PRESSURE on this and that.So,yes,i'm as usual most impressed with your sagacity.

Well,Beth,now it's my turn to sit it out on the sidelines,my forging time is up...(hell and damnation,it had to happen in the middle of that gothic project,the only thing this summer that i was really beginning to grow as a smith working on...).

As you know i'm on strike against fiscal reality,and the strike-fund was at an end,i'll simply not make the winter this way.
So,the net is in,the fish drying racks are partially built,and the waters of the Yukon have receeded enough to where my log rafts are now aground.I drove the truck close enough to the wood to actually be burning charcoal out of the new batch of driftwood,it was very worrysome to be going through the wood without ever replenishing it.
The forging,for the next month,will be touch-and-go...Only in October i'll be forging around the clock again.

Let's give the theory and the hypothesis hell,meanwhile!Make even these enforced abscences from the shop productive-we can do it!

And yes,alas,as much as i love English,my horrid accent just won't go away,it's very much like the Count's,but not at all cute like his.When i make a mistake to hear myself recorded(leaving a message for friends and being there when they play it,say)i'm simply shocked.I guess that i don't hear it,and so forget that it's there.For shame,in 31 years not to learn to speak clearly.

jake - let me just say this about the accent thing - i clap my hands with joy if you really do speak like the count! its just perfect!!!! john and i can do the queens english bit if you like, although hes a tough up the north voice and im a poofy southern cider drinking bunce bogis and bean
im intrigued as to what you will be entirely doing now till october, you must let us kow, but surely we can keep up the theorising ( i know i can!) to tide you over, as you so kindly have for me in my wilderness weeks....
the piece is looking really superb now, it has come to life even more since we last saw it - the detail and the balance are looking fab - isnt it great when you can work on something - like you said - that you are aware your skills and knowledge and feel are all growing . so feeding in so many ways. have you done something like wax it too? it looks different - maybe just the lighgt..
i have been offered another day today, so after i have done a couple of dross like tasks here i am off down the farm to fiddle about with that hemlock plan - i will let you know how i get on..
i know what you mean baou thte recorded voice - its almost like another person speaking and never a pleasant surprise! i am embarking on some recorded singing with a ver y talented guitarist friend (i am certainly NOT a talented singer, just one who loves to do it) and the recording of the activity is always a bit of a horror - i would rather imagine the sound you would hear would be the sound i hear inside my skull.
glad you seem to get what im on about about the pressure thing - its very vivid to me - i think its very miuch to do with how i look at stuff - thinking about it you can even apply that way of measureing and assessing to relationship[s and otherwise 'invisible' stuff..
isnt that scrap pile of johns something?? :)

jake just tried to put your russian fairy tale hooks on my desk top for inspiration - its all blurred,,,, im not clever enough to sort that out! :(

those side cups are whats sorted that gothic piece out jake!! - i was not concentrating - were those always in the plan? thats totally what has ballanced it - it looks GREAT!

Ok,Beth,you tricked me!Here is that book from you showing up in the mail today,and no return address!
You'd better give it up,don't make me call on my russian mafia connections in England-how am i supposed to send you something funky from the woods without an address?!

Thank you,Beth,that is so very neat,to get a book that you've recommended and sent,i really look forward to seeing what's it has to say!

It'd be very easy for me to describe what i'll be doing here while not forging,very simple-every which possible way i can look from my shack there are QUANTITIES of work,even trying to prioritise it all is a lot of work...

The view up-river:The net is set,and fishing.20,30,50 fish a day,more,less...The net must be picked,then the human-grade fish is cut and cleaned preliminarily.



Theyget hung up for a bit,while the dog fish gets cut and put on the rack.Even with two dogs it'll take 300-500 fish,to last till next summer.I've cut less then 10 this morning,but still have to see what's in the net now,so it's a long,steady,humping kind of a chore(like all else here).The hanging dogfish will have to be turned once,then moved closer as they dry,then put away,really,not too much handling,but it adds up.



Then,the eating fish need to be processed in some way.Now,for this type of fish(fall run chum salmon),i'm cutting them into the "half-dry",or,in Athapaskan,"dia'ga(k'ia'ga)" configuration.They should dry some before freezing,and then be easy enough to bake or fry the rest of the way when used.
There's about a million other ways of dealing with it,salting and canning and drying and et c.,but it's all a hassle...So it's mostly a matter of taste and variety...



That all takes some hours,and is repeated twice a day,as the Yukon is not that cold(+/-50F)and the fish can't hang in the net more than 12 hours.

Now,i cast my gaze down-river...There are logs,firewood,as far as an eye can see...They'll all have to be cut-up,and loaded,and filed,because they're awfully hard to find under the snow,when the need for them is greatest.
The river was up to those willows just a few days ago,and all that mess was afloat,since May,when i caught them,so now they're all nice and waterlogged,light as a feather,i tell ya!



These,the wood and the fish,are the two essencial chores right now.So i won't show what's happening in all other directions around the place-it's a DISASTER,a war-theater of neglected projects,some(like the two steam-engines and the boiler pertaining to them)so large that they can only be manipulated using equipment.I'm usually pretty slick when it comes to sweet-talking people into letting me use their heavy machinery,but that's wearing thin....I do need a few days with a forklift here before snow,or i'm in trouble...

And here is a dirty secret:All that surrounds me here,this infrastructure,of course,is not mine.It belongs to a friend who no longer lives here in the village.To maintain it,and to pay the bills here,i work for him seasonally,by peddling gasoline to the Great White Hunters,who grace us with their heroic presence every September,the moose-hunting season.I'm,for this month,a gas-station attendant!
I'll not even go into the social dynamic of how we get on with these guys,no one has choked anyone yet,and it's a wonder,but really,predominantly they're really nice folks.Just maybe somewhat confused as to why and the how of getting out into the Great Outdoors.
But it is a jolly,confusing,totally hectic time for this coming month,being a 24hr gas-station on top of everything else.Entertaining,that's for sure.And,providing this marvelous beach-head,a place of my own,in the world of other people.With electricity,internet,the sounds and sights of human activity.
Without this place i'd only come to the village on a short visit every few months.
And certainly give up forging,it'd be preposterous then,forging into the void!

So,all that makes me a schizophrenic and a bigamist,thus trying to serve the two mistresses,the society of specialists,and the world of the River.One foot in each.Each being a jealous mistress,it's not that easy...But,what is?

And it's incredible how diverse this particular God's pocket is.The shack is surrounded by berry bushes,mostly high-bush cranberry and raspberry.One can crawl out in their underpants of a groggy,foggy morn,and pick them right into the bowl of porridge...The rare passerby don't care,they're used to all sorts of degenerate behavoir from the inhabitant of this shack.

Jake, look on google for the " old state capitol of Louisiana " Gothic on the Mississippi.

Interesting the way that you've cut those fish Jake. It looks like work but I suppose that you've become marvelously skilled at it?

Thanks,Rusty,i'll try,sounds intriguing!!!

Clay,i'm,alas,just a clumsy white man(emphasis on the gender -it's woman's work,and you should see some older ladies' fish-it's a flipping work of art,i'm not kidding).
Even after all these years,i'm not that hot.
There are very solid reasons as to why each and every cut is made,it's all totally logical,and very practical.It IS hard,and long,and tedious.
(I'd better get back to it,sneaking in here to peek in at the messages,allegedly...)

jake - thanks for documentation of alaskan life ! its very interesting to me - you cant mean that stuf has been in the water since may surely?? will you be able to dry it sufficiently? i occasionally have to burn wet wood and its rubbish... hope you have some nice dry storage or something? had not given any real thought to the problem of finding and getting out firewood in deep snow....! all the fish stuff sounds very interetsting and im sure, a skilled job . even more interesting is the whole gas station interaction with the enemy or however you view the Visitors - i want to hear about all visitors to your stationa dn what they are doing visiting what their hopes for their visit etc and what they are all like. if thats ok i think you can educate us supremely in this manner whilst your on THE SHIFT. and regarding the two mistresses - im sure you know yourself , as long as your not 'unevenly yolked', you will keep any jealousy at bay
i hope your up for the social interaction that this period will bring you - im sure you will look upon it as a study of human beings, as is everything really - and tell us all about it. So glad its there really, we certainly cant have you Forging Into The Void - what an awful bleak thing to say!!!!!

ps - re the book - please trememeber you got to see through the cheese, and dont do it at all unless you have time to commit to the at least the morning pages section - that is where the creative surge comes from... please dont think you have to do it though!! i did not deliberately evade your request for address but it gave me no option. fascinatiing and slioghtly unsettling that i can get a book to you in a matter of less than a week, via my computor screen..... eek too weird - what i woudl absolutely have preffered is if i could have put my old copy into your hand - but i guess this wiill have to suffice. its just not really from me if i havent had it in my hand - thats the way i feel. let me know if you have time to read any of it..

Well from the look of those fish I doubt that you are as inept as your modesty would have us think... I have worked with women doing similar stuff though and I do know what you mean... their dexterity can be stunning. Most pro fly tyers are women... I once showed some of my flies to a forewoman in one of those sweat shops and she doubted that they were really done by my own hand. Just as well too for I am an artful tyer as good as any anywhere but I tend to be SLOW... NOT so good for a pro tyer.

You remind me of the first experience I had ocean fishing. We filled the fish box with black rockfish from 3 to 5 pounds and when we got back to the docks I discovered that I was the ONLY person who knew how to fillet fish! Long day that one! I fillet just like I tye, beautifully but SLOW.

Wow,Clay,fly tying is a neat art,i've been so long at the barbaric chore of using the "wall of death" that i've not held a rod since decades ago...What an elegant,gentlemanly way to catch a fish...And flies are an incredible sight in and of themselves,especially when there are several different ones together!

It's most important to be good,make precise cuts,when cuting fish for preservation(or any other reason,really).But speed is of an essence also(the fish are decomposing while you fiddle with too few too carefully).In part because of that about a million different ways to do it developed.The cut changes relative the kind of fish,the time of year,the purpose for this specific product,the weather...

When i just got here(by no means green even then,as i was coming from commercial fishing and a few years of bumming around another great river system,the Copper and it's tributaries),i was hired on as a dog-fish cutter in a large indian fish camp.My job was to process the by-catch from the commercial part of the operation into fish sold to people with dog teams.
I was a pathetic spectacle,taking 4 min. 57 sec.to cut one dogfish!My boss,a nasty old man(and to this day a very dear friend,96 this year(!),and still calls me "My man Friday"),would take friends and visitors down to the cutting raft to show off his pet whiteman who was THAT incompetent.People stared and laughed,after he once again timed me by his watch.The totes full of fish stacked up behind me in the hot sun,and occasionally throughout the day the boss would whistle up a kid or two,and nod to them to take the fish out in the river and dump it,i simply wasn't keeping up.
After a month or more i've finally gotten it down to under 1 minute,i think we cut over 5000 fish for dogfood alone that summer...
Back in the Gold Rush days the prospectors rarely owned their own team of dogs(because it meant fishing all summer instead of prospecting),they leased them,feed included,from people specialising in the biz.
One such enterprise was run in Ruby by the legendary Altona Brown,with her husband Joe,the "Dago Kid".Altona could,and apparently did quite regularly,cut 500 a day by herself.

The catches are low right now,but the quality is fairly high.I took a photo of some fish last night in part to show some good ones to our English comrades,to make up a little for the silly aspersions that i've cast upon the fish exported to England,earlier this summer.




The fish in the photo are all fall chum,but,do you see that some are silvery,and rounder,much fatter looking?The funky coloration,the wolf-teeth,the loss of condition on other fish there are the signs of "fresh-water damage",indicating that the fish are close to their spawning grounds.When salmon enter the river from the ocean they stop feeding,and go on on the fat they carry,to the spawning beds where they spawn and die.It's an unexplained mystery how some fish postpone that deterioration,depending on how far they head up river.The silvery ones in the tote are probably going all the way into Canada,another 1200 miles(we're already close to 400 into the Yukon from the ocean).
Well,the ones exported to England are all in great shape,as they're caught at the mouth of Yukon,fresh from feeding in the ocean.By the world's standards(the Tokio and the London markets)these are some of the MOST valued fish in the world,these particular ones,the Yukon River Chum.(Keta,pardon me!)

Jake,

I have been reading your posts each day and you are, to say the least, an excellent writer. They are very easy to read and you hold my attention. Let’s put that together with the ‘I want to be you’ phenomena life style and you need to write a book about your life in Alaska.

It's an unexplained mystery how some fish postpone that deterioration,depending on how far they head up river.

Not too hard to figure though as their deaths are caused NOT by the rigors of the spawning run but by a veritable flood of hormones that ages them till they die of old age within days or weeks. The jack salmon on the more coastal river systems will often survive their runs to return and spawn again a year or two later. Some of the coastal runs have salmon that apparently escape the normal process of accelerated aging to return and spawn again or maybe they just skip a year or two and spawn late in life. These are the monsters which will sometimes be hooked in rivers like the Klamath and "spool" (meaning to run the reel out of line) a big reel loaded with 100 pound test line.

I suspect that the scent of their home water may trigger the hormone releases as researchers have discovered that scent is their key to finding their way back to their home streams. Of course the run itself is hazardous and encounters with such predatory creatures as the griz and the commercial fishermen and the infamous Pogrebinsky will thin the ranks but the ultimate demise is hormonally driven. I have caught salmon in Idaho that were over a thousand miles from the salt and still bright healthy (and tasty!) fish, though a little slimmer than when they began their trip. They can go a long time and a long way while living on their fat and flesh stored when they were eating seafood every day. Some salmon do arrive early though and just hang around for a few days or even weeks before they spawn so the timing may be kind of complex.

My dad caught one of the first rod caught salmon in Idaho while trout fishing with a little airplane spinner in Bear Valley as a teen. Back in that day people did not believe that salmon could be caught on rods after entering fresh water. Spearing was the sporting method of that era.

Wow(again ),Clay,i forget that you're a fellow dweller of essentially the same Pacific Northwest!All is the way you've said it,much of it news to me,in my isolation.
Made me think of all those giant CLEAR rivers in your neck of the woods(so used to the glacial silt- laden Yukon-Tanana drainage...).
Also put me in mind of the crazy,suicidal indian scaffolds built over the falls,for spearing(? dip-netting?What is it they do there,exactly,besides risking their necks?).

Ciladog,thank you for your kind words,but i'll never write a book...If i had,it'll be a book of such harsh,revolting,macabre aspect that you'd shudder,and be left saddened,bewildered,and regretful.Trust me.
Much have been written on the subject,some(little)not even that vapid.
In a very big way i also have no right to expose my (too-close)priviledged view of my host culture here,it is a very discreet culture,among it's other attributes.
It is also a vanquished culture,and it's suffering and degradation are tragic,obscene,any of the stronger human reactions would suffice here as description,sadder than anything you can think of.It don't need to be spoken of,as it'll be in very bad taste.
My own story will depress you as well,it's not completely "written" yet,but one thing i can guarantee-it'll not end well.
I'm afraid that the best i can do is recommend a couple of books instead,if i may.
One would be "The Shadows on the Koyukuk",co-written by J.Rearden and S.Huntington.
Another,a couple,actually,is by Kirkpatrick Hill,"Toughboy and Sister",and "Winter camp".These are books for youths,but are explicit enough to come very close to life.I know Pat personally,and have a tremendous respect for her,but writing these she has offended the people here sorely and irreparably,and these people,whom i also love and respect,deserve that i pay heed to their preferences...(even if i didn't have many other reasons to be mum).
We'll keep it light here,and i will pick some neat,inoffensive details that are interesting-there's plenty amazing things here!God's Country,in a very literal sense :)