Blacksmithing for Beginners.

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Blacksmithing is by no means a dead trade, but if you watch or have watched shows like Forged in Fire, you’ll notice the modern forge has quite a few degrees of separation from the bellows and hammering of forges past. When I first got into blacksmithing, I wanted things to be modern. “This trade won’t die if we just keep moving forward!” I’d think; but all the automatic power hammers in the world won’t make you a better craftsman, and if all your fires are perfectly electronically heated, what will you really know about the giants whose shoulders you’re standing on? This is a guide on what you’ll need to set up your very own forge – the right way.

Barett Poley has a good article up at Make, all about setting up your own forge. I’d love to do this someday, and it’s definitely a doable project.

A Monkish Method.

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I really like and enjoy the incense Marcus makes and so generously gifts me with, and burning methods have come up. Most of the time, I just light a stick up and lay it in an ashtray. There are times when I want to burn frankincense or myrrh, and those call for the monkish method. Charcoal tablets are available in handy little rolls from any monastery supply. Using tongs, light up your tablet – I use the stovetop, just holding one edge to the flame. These burn easily and well, so you don’t need to torch them to death. Care is required here so you don’t burn your house down. Place the tablet in or on a fireproof surface. Think of it as a little stove, you need zero clearance. You don’t need anything special, rocks work great. Care is also needed when placing your incense of choice on the tablet. These produce a great deal of smoke, so be stingy with the amount you place on the tablet at one time. As you can see, smoke starts billowing right away. If the smoke decreases, gently blowing on the tablet will start it going again. The monkish method works great with Marcus’s incense, too!

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© C. Ford.

Gorgeous Doves!

Charly sent photos of more of his mom’s (and his) work in knipling. Absolutely gorgeous doves! Charly says: These two doves were made in 2011. The first one is my mothers design. After she made it, I asked her if she could do another one with my design, and she did. My input included not only new outline, but I also suggested the use of different colours and different lace /knotting.  The difference in style is quite apparent. The first dove is what would be called “traditional” style, because in this style are made laces, collars, doilies etc.

Pictures are behind glass, so I had to adjust colour saturation and levels to bring the colours out so the pictures look like the real fabric and not too grey. They are actually larger than life on screen, in reality they are only approximately 35 cm (14 inches) diagonally. For completeness’s sake I am also including the templates, I think you might find them interesting.

I definitely find them interesting! Click for full size.

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© Charly, all rights reserved.

Shiny Insects.

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Think twice before you swat that mosquito. It just might be a delicate glass sculpture, at least if you’re in the presence of Yuki Tsunoda, a young sculptor who shapes glass into insects and plants that are almost exactly to scale.

The 26-year old artist first began working with glass in 2012 when she attempted to visualize the disgust and aversion most people have to insects, especially when they swarm together. But as she studied them more and more she began to take note of the beauty of each individual body part. Tsunoda eventually shifted her focus to emphasizing the beauty of insects by recreating them in realistic forms, and to scale, using glass.

Beautiful work! There’s much more to see and read at Spoon & Tamago.

Uh…WOW.

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I, I am so blown away by these, they are amazing pieces in and of themselves, and the work is so time consuming, the artist can only manage a limited amount per year, around 25. I wouldn’t be able to do one in a year, but I’d certainly love to own one!

Since 2011, Oregon-artist Darryl Cox has been making “Fusion Frames,” sculptural hybrids of picture frames and segments of tree roots. Each piece begins with a search to find a frame that closely matches the reclaimed roots he obtains from manzanita, juniper, and aspen trees, or even from grapevines. The pieces require extensive amounts of woodworking and painting to seamlessly fuse the two objects together, meaning Cox can only produce around 25 or so pieces each year.

Cox will have work on view later this year at the The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, and he’s now reperesented by the Vickers Collection. You can see more of his recent work on Facebook.

Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a manzanita piece. There’s another of the very few things which can make me homesick. Via Colossal Art.

The Art of Knipling.

In a conversation, knipling came up, which is a type of lace making. I am, and always have been, in awe of people who can make lace, regardless of technique. It’s one of those skills which elude me. Charly was kind enough to send me a photo of one of his mother’s pieces, which is gorgeous! Definitely click for full size. Charly explains: My mother is skilled at knipling, but she was never that good at making non-abstract designs. I am the opposite – I can make realistic designs, but not abstract ones. So sometimes when she has an idea for something that should resemble reality, she employs my skill.  This knipled black swan design I drew for her a few years back from a picture she found on the internet. She then made the actual lace and framed it as a picture.

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A beautiful example of art collaboration.

Here’s a bit on knipling, and all I can think is what a mess of it I would make:

The Year of Knots.

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Amazing, wonderful work!

In January of 2016, artist Windy Chien devoted herself to learning a new knot every day for a year, tying a total of 366 by December 31st (2016 was a leap year). Although 366 knots might seem like a staggering number, it is nothing compared to the 3,900 included in Chien’s go-to knot manual—The Ashley Book of Knots, which took its author nearly 11 years to compile.

There is just so much to see! Via Wired. * Windy Chien’s Website. * Windy Chien’s Instagram.

In the nick of time…

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They arrived, just in time to accompany the pants™ and myself into town tomorrow. The Tyrranophobia is dark, a swirl of tobacco and opium, with a slash of jarring black cherry, or something like. I forget what’s actually in it. The Cryophobia I’m in love with, it’s like wearing clarity wrapped in Juniper. Of the samples, Debauchery won my little black heart. Spice, a hint of orange and clove, all rather debilitated and languishing. *Happy*