Where do you get your inspiration/ideas?

[Crazy Ivan]

I thought it would be interesting to start a topic about what inspires your work. Wether it be for axes, blades, tables, artistic sculpture,fences and gates etc. What gives you new ideas? For me, it is abandoned industrial area, nature, post apocalyptic movies, sci-fi, and also seeing other peoples work and something clicks where I can picture a different way of incorporating a feature used into something entirely different. What gets your creative gears turning?

-Crazy Ivan

[postleg]

A lot of mine comes from this web site. Seeing all the things other smiths are doing inspires me to give new things a try while adding my own twist to things. I also get a lot of inspiration from nature.

[thingmaker3]

I'm alive and I'm paying attention to my surroundings. :D

[Herb Upham]

You may want to check out:

• More Thoughts on Design
• Thoughts on Design

on the CBA website www.calsmith.org under Resources.

[divermike]

Books, newsletters, cheap Pakistani ripoffs, nature, necessity. But mostly books, Schmirler, Aspery, almost anything from Blue Moon Press, and of course, here!

[ThomasPowers]

Historic objects, books, personal needs, requests, not much from films and "popular culture" as many of their signature pieces are so poorly designed!

 

For weapons "Stone's Glossary" is a fun one to look through.

For non weapon items the Sonn book, dover books on antique ironwork, Scappi, the prune people viking book, Die Welt von Byzanz - Europas östliches Erbe. Glanz, Krisen und Fortleben , old pictorial guidebooks, modern ironwork books, and CONFERENCE EXHIBITS!

[petere76]

Crazy I,

 

The media options we have today are a gold mine of visual inspiration and technical how to. I have computer files full of what I call iron ideas, i.e.  pics culled from various web sites. I have noticed that some smiths are more artistically focused while others are more mechanically driven. Art form vs. structural function if you will. Both heat and move metal but they appear to be attracted to different callings. 

 

As a kid in NYC I was always attracted to the intricacy of the iron work on buildings and in the parks. This was way before I picked up a hammer to forge. The inspiration, in my case and for whatever unknown reason, was planted early on. As is the case with us humans we usually follow the heart. In support of that theory,  I am still today drawn to the historic and contemporary architectural elements that I see in cities that I visit. Gates in Europe and grates on doors in San Francisco, door knockers and hardware, it all still intrigues me. Conversely, botanical elements, not so much of a draw. Everyone makes leaves but I have seen some folks makes the whole tree,  and it looks real. Myself, I am more focused on function and joinery. England is full of unbelievable examples of flawlessly seamless and functional Iron work. I am always in awe when I see some of the work in the English cities.   Inspiration has as much to do with you as it does with what you see or where you see it.  

 

All the best on your quest. 

 

Merry Christmas, 

Peter  

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Ivan,

 

When I get in a slump I try a few things to stimulate myself.  One thing I do is go to the steel pile ,  Pick out a chunk of metal and say to myself there is something beautiful in here .... Let me find it ..   I try to develop a new procedure that I have never seen before...   Another which is why the call me the tool man..  I develop a new tool for the future...   Enclosed a picture of a chunk I started with to make a candle holder ...  Just one piece of 24in  1/2 by 1/2 with no welding or sectioning ..  One rivet..  Have fun

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Glenn]

Keep your eyes open. Do not look, but see.

 

You can look at what other blacksmiths have done, look at nature and all the variety she provides. Try to look at everything around you either physically, in print, on the web, or in any media or fashion it it presented to you. The problem is to then see, that is to see beyond the flat surface and see the elements. Write them down as they are fleeting and do not want to be remembered or photograph them.

 

As you build your data base you can then pick and choose as your projects call for new ideas or unusual ways to present something. Be open to using what is available in a nontraditional way. I once brought home a bucket of old, used, auto exhaust pipe clamps because I saw them as dragon teeth. Sorted out the U bolts and used the metal bolts for making nails.

 

It is a challenge to not look but to see. Once you start you see the whole world differently. 

[jmccustomknives]

Inspiration is a funny thing.  Like others have said, seeing things that others have done or nature has made.  One day I was making a cable knife and the billet as it welded up reminded me of a snake. 

 

It worked.  I got to looking at a piece as I was working with it and wondered, could I make a tree.  After a little practice I came up with this.

 

 

The trick for me is to let the materials tell me what they want to be.  Then try to bring it out.  I'm not good at it, but it's fun trying.

[ThomasPowers]

Peter, I have a book on german doors from a particular city; nudge me over the holidays when I'll be near my library and I'll cite it for you if you would like.

[Crazy Ivan]

Greetings Ivan,

 

When I get in a slump I try a few things to stimulate myself.  One thing I do is go to the steel pile ,  Pick out a chunk of metal and say to myself there is something beautiful in here .... Let me find it ..   I try to develop a new procedure that I have never seen before...   Another which is why the call me the tool man..  I develop a new tool for the future...   Enclosed a picture of a chunk I started with to make a candle holder ...  Just one piece of 24in  1/2 by 1/2 with no welding or sectioning ..  One rivet..  Have fun

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

 I do that a lot too. I don't recall who said it but and old (Greek?) stone sculptor once said something along the lines of "I didn't create the sculpture, it was already there. I simply trimmed off the rough edges to reveal what was already there". 

-Crazy Ivan

[Justin Caradoc]

 I do that a lot too. I don't recall who said it but and old (Greek?) stone sculptor once said something along the lines of "I didn't create the sculpture, it was already there. I simply trimmed off the rough edges to reveal what was already there". 

-Crazy Ivan

 

This is the way Michelangelo used to sculpt I believe. I always liked that thought process myself.

[anvil]

here's a couple that's not been mentioned.

when doing a piece w repetitive parts like scrolls, I will play with them ob my table. meaning put them together in different ways. its amazing what else is there to be "seen" when doing this. rhen I take pucs and file them away for the future.

often when I "make a mistake" I"see" its only a mistake in the context of the present piece, but will look pretty cool in another context.

for me, learning to "see" became pretty real when I learned about negative space and how to"see" it. I was able to pull off pull off symmetry, flat spots litterally jumped out at me.

the negative space itself became inspirational. one day whilst driving down the road I saw a sign of great beauty and uniqueness, a white on black form, I blinked and it became---speed limit 65--- sheesh, but true.

as stated in an above post, the concept of "seeing" is very important.

[windancer]

You can look around you where ever you are and if you think hot steel for a few minutes something will probably spark an idea.

My problem is not what but which- my head is so full of ideas and thinhs I want to try that it's hard to pick just one or two.

One of the old time knifemakers, when asked how he decides to make a knife, said the knife is already there- you just need to grind off the part that isn't a knife.

Dave

[DSW]

The media options we have today are a gold mine of visual inspiration and technical how to. I have computer files full of what I call iron ideas, i.e.  pics culled from various web sites. I have noticed that some smiths are more artistically focused while others are more mechanically driven. Art form vs. structural function if you will. Both heat and move metal but they appear to be attracted to different callings. 

 

As a kid in NYC I was always attracted to the intricacy of the iron work on buildings and in the parks. This was way before I picked up a hammer to forge. The inspiration, in my case and for whatever unknown reason, was planted early on. As is the case with us humans we usually follow the heart. In support of that theory,  I am still today drawn to the historic and contemporary architectural elements that I see in cities that I visit. Gates in Europe and grates on doors in San Francisco, door knockers and hardware, it all still intrigues me. Conversely, botanical elements, not so much of a draw. Everyone makes leaves but I have seen some folks makes the whole tree,  and it looks real. Myself, I am more focused on function and joinery. England is full of unbelievable examples of flawlessly seamless and functional Iron work. I am always in awe when I see some of the work in the English cities.   Inspiration has as much to do with you as it does with what you see or where you see it.  

 

 

 

I agree I have a couple dozen different folders on my hard drive under the heading "Forged projects" that I have loaded with picts that I've seen elsewhere and saved for reference on different projects.

 

 

I also love to look at old historical buildings for inspiration. I got in  the habit when I was going to college for Architecture of wandering the city with a camera and taking pictures of stone work and old iron work that interested me for reference later. Something in those items caught my attention, even if I didn't understand it on an intellectual level, just an instinctive one. At least I'd have a reference to go back to later. I do wish I'd also kept a note book with the addresses of the places as well so I could go back and take more picts later if I found something really useful, but either there were on the periphery of the pict or the pict turned out too blurry to be useful ( back when I was shooting film). Digital is so much easier today. I try and keep a small digital camera in the truck with me all the time so I can shoot picts of things that catch my eye. If possible I try and keep the better DSLR camera with me, but it's not as convenient as my little 4 megapix  one that I can shove in my pocket.

 

 

I'm still struggling with WHY I seem to be drawn to one building or item vs another. I'm sure there is some subtle thing that my subconscious is keying on, whether it's positive/negative space relationships as mentioned above, or its a juxtaposition of shapes and spaces, The way the piece flows... I'm still not really sure. It's often like when you have something on the tip of your tongue and it's frustrating you because you can't remember it. It's there, but you just can't put your finger on it right then.