BEAR SIGHTING

what up, bear.

Forged work from my Penland class

Forged steel buckle, hand finished and tooled leather belt with my favorite Spanish word.

Damascus by April Franklin, formed by me. Various high carbon tool steels.

My damascus- Monel + mild steel, silver solder.
Bronze fleur de lis safety pin
bronze fleur wall hook
bells buckle. forged steel frame, pressed found tin insert, sterling silver rivets.

Leaving my legacy at penland

Part of my finger is still on the chain out back of the iron studio. 

Penland!

Well folks, it's been an exciting two weeks. I went to the Penland School of Crafts on June 5th, and I'm just now sitting in the Asheville airport on my way home. It was a fantastic week. I learned about forges and blacksmithing and metal alloys and all that great dorky metals stuff. Then we made belt buckles with Erica Gordon of Steel Toe Studios, then we made damascus steel (or screwed it up multiple times, in my case) and formed different items out of the material. It was fun and informative, and our teacher, April Franklin, is absolutely fantastic. She is a riot, so intelligent, a great problem solver, and she curses like a sailor. April was so generous with her time and energy, I know we worked her to exhaustion a few times. I mortally destroyed my damascus billet at least 4 times, and she saved it easily (but with much cursing) each and every time. when it finally got so bad that I couldn't use it for what i wanted it originally, she donated her own perfect and valuable billet (which I actually managed to screw up too, but more on that later.) Some pictures of the studio, my forge, April, etc:

    April Franklin on the power hammer, I think fixing one of my mistakes.

   me on the power hammer. Probably making one of my mistakes.

                 hammering on a pathetically cold piece of metal. 

my forge/ workspace

Lilacs

Hugh and I are finding ourselves in much better spirits lately. Rachel's visit (and her squealing excitement over everything that caught her eye) helped remind me how extraordinary this place I live in is. And the amazing sunny weather hasn't hurt either! I've switched shifts around a bit lately, so that I only work evenings at the hotel, which means I have till 3 in the afternoon to work in the studio or soak up the fresh air on the front porch (you can guess where I've been more.) I'm replenishing my vitamin D, god knows I've been deficient for the last many months!

Our front porch, like most in town here, is shaded by a massive lilac bush. After so much snow and cold, the fireworks display of blooms mixed with the scent and warm breeze of the last few hot days has made me blissful. The ratio of happy travelers to grumpy businesspeople has swung in summer's favor at the hotel, so even work is somewhat more pleasant.

Some lilacs:


Mr. Saddlebags McBee


(yay new camera!)

I'm going to North Carolina for two whole weeks!

I'm taking a class at Penland! It's called Steel This Jewelry, taught by April Franklin.
Some of April's work:




I'll be there from June 5th to the 21st, learning forging and smithing, how to work with steel, how to make damascus.. I am so excited! I've been lifting weights in anticipation of throwing hammers around! Hooray!

Rachel Rader in Montana!

My very good friend and talented artist, Rachel Rader, came through Choteau today on her way to the east coast! I'm so happy to finally have a friend out here! These were some of our adventures:






Photo credits go to Rachel! Thanks for coming through! It made me so happy!

PS. Click this link to see Rachel's glass work- It is AMAZING!