Bozo's on the Bus....

[Randy]

Not sure where this belongs, but the closest thing we've had to it was in the Member Projects like in Jake's "Of Shoes,and Ships,and Sealing Wax ..." where we really got into how this work affects us. Where our work comes from and why it means so much to us. It kind of struck me last night in watching "American Idol". Yea, I know, we get inspiration from everywhere. Anyway, Steven Tyler was consoling and encouraging a contestant who was crying because he was accepted and Steven says, I had to rewind it several times to make sure I heard it right… ”We’re just bozo’s on the bus until we find a way to express ourselves! And for us singing is that way." Boy, did that hit a chord with me. And for us smithing is the way... Please chime in!

[Greenbeast]

I only discovered smithing last year and had never really been an arty type (did ok in high/secondary school)


It just occurred to me the other day that i'm doing 'art' now, and i'm hoping to do it full time in the next year or two.

It has just crept up on me

[HWHII]

Smithing for me is my stress relief. I find that can express myself through my work in ways others can't. When it is allowed, it seperates me from all the other cut and weld people. People look at my cut and weld work and there is little comment. Then they look at my forged work and they think it is magical.

[tzonoqua]

Oh Randy.... I'm shaking my head in shame!!! I can't really believe you've come out on a public forum and admitted you watch American Idol!!! hehe...

I can get so totally engrossed in forge work... the whole world disappears, time stands still, it's my happy place ( even if sometimes I'm cursing and pulling my hair out in frustration because whatever I'm doing isn't going quite right..)

Anyway, I'm glad I finally discovered blacksmithing at the tender age of 28... I got off the bozo bus at the Blacksmith's Bus stop, and been happily hammering away ever since... I only wish I would have found my stop sooner!!

[Private Entrance]

Agreed. My efforts at smithing have filled a hole that has been empty since I stopped working in the ski shop.

I didn't realize how much I missed working with my hands and using that part of my brain, even the pull-my-hair-out-and-cursing part.

[Randy]

But Colleen, if I hadn't watched it I wouldn't have gotten such words of wisdom from such a guru! :D

[beth]

i love the quote! no harm in a bit of aerosmith either :)

there are many things i am passionate about, and thats the whole point of life for me, and metal in all its guises is one of them, the older i get the more i clarify what is important about this stuff for me, and what i need to do to achieve what i need to achieve.! some friends ive made on here help hugely, and theres not many that realise how much it all means to us eh? :) and although its slow progress, it remains compulsive journeying :) nice one randy :)

bozo - i got to use that word.... :)

[george m.]

Dear All,

I have been smithing since 1978 and it has generally been at a hobby level. I make a couple of $k/year which supports the hobby plus some.

One of the things that has kept me in the craft is the mental health aspect. I work with words and paper all day (I'm an attorney) and to make something tangible which will last long after I am gone is very good for me mentally. Hitting hot iron is a great stress reliever. If more folk worked with their hands (cooking, carpertry, knitting, etc.) I think the mental health industry would take a hit.

BTW, the bozos/bus reference goes back to the Firesign Theater, a very strange but funny '60s comedy group which did an album entitled "I think we're all bozos on this bus."

Also, one thing that I've noticed is that craft seems to attract craft in relationships. My wife is a spinner and weaver and I know a number of smiths who are married to fiber folk. Has anyone else noticed a similar pattern?

Craftily,
George M.

[John McPherson]

Thomas Powers calls it the Iron/Wool relationship, and yes, it is commonly observed by many on this and other fora.

Although my wife is doing less fiber and more jewelry as of late. She loved watching and meeting the members of POMM at ABANA this summer. It seems to be where we meet in the middle, but it does not stop her from making fun of me, an XXXXL troll with a jewelers saw and magnifiers working at the bench.

[chyancarrek]

It's paper and iron in our house. The wife makes handmade journals - She recently taken up knitting tho . . .

FST? That's a favorite of my neighbor Ivor, He used to be an engine drivor . . .

[tzonoqua]

George, I have to laugh at the 'fibre folk' reference. My partner is an A&E Nurse, so often when we tell people what we do they think we're joking. In fact it wasn't until my local doctor came into the forge when I was there at the anvil that he did realize, we weren't joking, although we had already told him several times!!! If you are familiar with the trades, then a male nurse is not that uncommon, nor is a female blacksmith, but the general public often don't have a clue!! Makes for quite a good laugh sometimes though! But, yes, it is true, crafty people do tend to flock together, whatever their 'craft' might be.

[ianinsa]

Oi, calling the folks on IFI a "crafty lot" could win you a clip on the ear! :D :D
However you are so right, My beloved wife is an artist who works as a professional interior designer, my day job used to be Architect. now I have fun and sometimes I even make money at it! B)

[george m.]

Dear Ianisa,

I have always liked referring to blacksmithing as a craft and describing myself as a craftsman. I am not pretentious enough to be an "artist" and to describe my work as something "imaginatively and daringly manipulating a medium to demonstrate the innate plasticity of nature and materials." If I am able to create something of beauty which is pleasing to the beholder's eye and soul, well and good but I am usually aiming at functionality.

The line between "art" and "craft" is subtle and subject to a lot of debate but I am proud to be a craftsman but suspicious of being called an artist.

Practially,
George M.

PS I once had a friend who told me that I didn't have enough personality misfunctions to be a good artist. I've know a lot of stable artists but there is something of a grain of truth in that. Stereotypes don't often exist without some sort of basis in fact. Creativity (particularily great creativity) seems to be often associated with other personality issues.

GM

[beth]

george what a strange stance... it makes me sad that you or anyone would be suspicious of being called an artist, associate them with personality issues, and even say your not pretentious enough for the title... :( i would certainly call myself an artist, as i think it covers all manner of attempts at creativity. as you describe your attempts in this craft as "imaginatively and daringly manipulating a medium to demonstrate the innate plasticity of the materials" i am surprised you dont define yourself as one too. a GOOD artists is quite another thing. its all just definitions and ways we have been brought up to feel about certain words though, and as long as we are all creating, we have that in common, whatever we choose to call ourselves.

ps - edit - george i just re read that and realised that you were not describing your work as "imaginatively and daringly " bla bla bla which is why i could not understand that you would not define yourself as an artist. i still hold that you create objects, and that in itself is the very creativity you seem to be suspiscious of and basing your views on.... still a strange stance! :)

[Frosty]

This thread is close to my heart. I loved the FST but I lost all my albums I don't know when. <sigh> Here's why I think blacksmithing is so dear to so many of us.

Iron and steel are the bones of modern human civilization, they represent strength, durability, refractory longevity. And here we are, clever monkeys who's only edge on the world is a great big brain and thumbs and what do we do? We take humanities oldest two tools, fire and something to bash with and we have our way with iron and steel. Does that NOT sing to your soul? Strike right where YOU live and fill whatever voids may exist?

The engineers I used to work with never understood why I didn't look up to them, well in a way THEY could observe or understand. I do respect people with degrees, I just don't suck up. PERIOD. Why? I can MAKE things with my bare hands, to prove the point to a pair of guys I worked for I found some scrap iron, a smooth ultra mafic (BLACK smooth grained stone. Okay, so I do know some things at a degree worthy level) probably a hornblend boulder and some nice size cobbles. I dug a trench leading into the camp fire from upwind, placed my anvil boulder and twisted a willow wand as a handle for my smaller hammer stone. I started heating really rusty pieces of steel I dug off the beach from below the tide line and started doing MY THING to them. First thing I made was a HACK, simple as pie if you know what's what. Then I started in on a decent sized piece of shaft. hacked it to length and then realized I FORGOT to make a punch. <sigh> Oh well, I needed a drift too so I did my thing to some more steel. I had to fit the first handle while the head was hot because I hadn't made a shave yet. Where WAS my brain?

Anyway, in about three hours I'd made a set of tools and scrounged a really large chunk of steel to make an improved anvil. Best of all, I started with rocks, scrap and a campfire.

Like I say, smithing sings to my soul, makes me who I am a Maker of Things.

Not to disagree George but I have a two word definition of art. "Transcendent Craft." Art has as it's root word "Artifact" which basically means "made thing." What man makes is an artifact when a person raises the making to a point where the total is greater than the sum it's ART.

Oh yeah, Deb's a spinner she's demoing at the Alaska State Fair on her off days right now. And John, Thomas Powers calls or dubbed us "Steel Wool couples." It's a moniker I'm proud to have. Deb's marvelous with her hands, she can bring her inner vision to view for anyone. Oh, my other definition, "Art is Communication" You may not like what's being said and most people won't get the same message but what do those matter? The better the artist the closer to THEIR vision the viewers will see, read, feel, etc.

Colleen: I don't watch American Idol but I have come to really enjoy "Ridiculousness" on MTV. In my defense I'm proud to say I've never watched Dog the Bounty Hunter or Jackass.

Thanks for the chance to say things I usually only feel or think about.

Frosty The Lucky.

[tzonoqua]

Frosty, I have no idea what that show is, about two months ago our satelite receiver broke, and we haven't gotten around to fixing it yet, nor have we got an aerial on the house for television. It has been rather nice that the square thing in the living room is no longer the centre of attention. We still watch videos on it, and have a couple different games systems, and of course we have computers in the house, so it's not like we've gone back into the dark ages, but now we choose what we want to watch and when and are not dictated to by the box. I rather like it but the kids have kept asking when it's going to be fixed. I did tell them if they would like to sort it out, pay for it to be done they are quite welcome to do that, might just get them off their backsides to get a job!!

and George, I don't see that Artist is such a bad thing but they are all just labels at the end of the day.

[Ten Hammers]

This thread makes me want to grow my hair long, cut the soles out of my shoes. live in a tree and learn to play the flute.

Before some of you think I'm finally over the edge, Porgy and Mutthead are in my past as well.

The peace and tranquility of forge work will sometimes be the only thing that returns me to the proper frame of mind.

[yesteryearforge]

:)

[Marksnagel]

I'm not sure if forging is my escape to or from reality. Either way it is an escape from electronics with it's constant barrage of white noise and unimportant visuals, illnesses that just won't go away, boredom, work, and a myriad of other distractions in life. It allows me to get closer to my Lord as I can have uninterrupted talks and meditations and express my feelings through my work and hammer blows. Sometimes the hammer just needs to fall harder and faster than other days.
That's stress relief. It's probably what keeps me from shaking some people till spit flies when they really need it.
If I had my way I would gut my house of all modern (electric and electronic)gadgets. And yes that even means this computer. The fire and anvil are a simpler way for me yet not so much that I can be brainless. Still some thinking involved.

Bozo can keep on driving because I have no intention of getting off the bus.

[bigfootnampa]

Have you lost your voice Mike? Well at least you are happy!

[Willis]

I've only been smihing about seven years. Many thanks to my then gilfriend-now my wife- who loaned me the money to take a Blacksmih beginers class at JC Campbell. It is a my stress relief and I love it.
I do have long hair and we do live in the Florida woods with five chickens, four pigs and numerous 'critters' and I'm old enough to draw social security next year.
I was on that bus a long time before I found my niche.

[jawno]

Oh no. My girlfriend doesn't seem crafty at all. Maybe I need to dump her in order to be an artist? Hope not because I kind of like her. I just planned to teach her to be crafty. she seems willing to learn. Creating things is the great escape for me. Just wish I could turn a better profit on it but that's neither here nor there.

[yesteryearforge]

Have you lost your voice Mike? Well at least you are happy!

:)
I must be near the bus stop because I think i'm surrounded by Bozo's sometime

[Frank Turley]

I wrote an article which touched on some of this in the Fall, 1986 "Anvil's Ring." A portion of what I wrote about has to do with "the splendid work day." An excerpt:

"We are all subject to breaks in concentration and lapses in visualization. We often use our bodies in distressful ways. We sometimes allow our house problems to become studio problems.

However, there is another side to the coin. Most of us have had successful work days where everything seemed to fall into place, where you lost yourself inside your work, and at day's end you were tired but peacefully and pleasantly so. [i call it Rockin' chair on the front porch as the sun goes down kind of tired.] The experience was transcendental. Tarthung Tulku calls this kind of experience 'working at the gut level.' David Smith refers to it as getting rides on while you are working. At this level of working, you gain access to a sort of relaxed, unthinking state. [This is a mild meditation and time is suspended.] Gurdjieff taught that the performance of physical tasks helps us to harmonize our centers.

The problem is that we can't always enter that state. If you try too hard to enter, you seemingly tread backwards. I don't have the answer, even though I believe that the meditative state is desirable. I think that if we persevere, it helps. Try to leave distractions outside the shop door. Ray Bradbury, the author, talks about his work of writing: "Work! Relax! Don't think!"

Bradbury, Ray. "The Zen Writer and Every Writer" Yes Capra Chapbook Series, Santa Barbara, California: Capra 1958.
Gray, Cleve, Ed. "David Smith by David Smith" New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
Huang, Al Chung-liang. "Embrace Tiger Return to Mountain" Moab, Utah. Real People 1973.
Tulku, Tarthang. "Skillful Means" Berkeley, California: Dharma, 1978.
Gurdjieff, G.I. "Meetings with Remarkable Men"
Maslow, Abraham. "Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences" 1964.

[george m.]

Dear Beth and Others,

I suppose my distaste or suspicion of "art" is my experience is that many "artists" and art professors and historians are really just faking it and making it sound much more profound than it really is. Frankly, much of what passes for "art" these days is just dreck and involves very little skill or imagination. A lot of commentary on "art" is very long on content and short on meaning. My previous quote was an attempt to illustrate/parody this.

I have heard "art" as defined as anything which arouses emotion. Maybe, but revulsion is an emotion and there are some things which demand a large amount of eye bleach and are worthy of the warning "that which has been seen cannot be unseen." "Performance art" is a good example. Is someone painting themselves blue and rolling around moaning really worthy of being called "art?"

I have seen a fair amount of blacksmith art which I describe as the explosion in a spaghetti factory school. The people doing it seem so amazed that they can manipulate a static medium like steel into other shapes that the result is just an exercise in doing that rather than any other end.

I'm just a simple country lawyer/blacksmith/geologist/veteran and maybe I'm not sophisicated enough to understand all the "arty" stuff but whatever "art" is I think that beauty and the creation of something pleasing to the eye in involved. Just making something "different" is not IMHO "art." I think that successful "art" is something that someone would be happy to look at every morning when they got up for the rest of their lives. I have paintings which have hung on my walls for decades which still give me pleasure to see every day. People a lot smarter than me have argued for centuries about the definition of "art."

The line between "art" and "craft" is pretty vague and difficult to define. They may be different words for the same thing. I have heard on distinction which I am not at all sure I agree with that craft creates useful things and art creates things which are decorative.

I am sure that what I produce at the anvil, whether beautiful or practical or both is craft. I am much less sure that it is "art," whatever that may be.

Somewhat confusedly,
George M.

PS The Firesign Theater albums, including "I Think That We're All Bozos on This Bus" may be heard on Youtube. I listened to some last night and it is just as strange and surrealistic as it was 40 years ago.

PPS Maybe the real differece between a craftsman blacksmith and an artist blacksmith is that the latter can charge more.