Blacksmithing weekend

So I ride up to Jerome on Friday, to drop off some work and pick up a check. Another artist had left a little article in my file about a blacksmithing demo going on in CV this weekend. Turns out, it was on our street, about five houses away! Th Arizona Artist Blacksmith Association has "hammer ins" every other month, and this one was being hosted by our neighbors. So I headed over in the morning, and wrote my membership check. The boys set up their lemonade stand next to the registration table. Gordon Williams did the demo on Saturday. I took his workshop last fall. He is an awesome demonstrator, and a talented blacksmith. After the all day demo, we went on a tour of a few of the CV artists' shops. I love seeing other peoples' work spaces, not to mention the awesome properties around here!

This is Ray Rybar Jr., who makes AMAZING knives with damascus steel. He not only makes the steel, forming incredible patterns in the metal with various types of steel(google damascus), he goes out and digs the ore to actually MAKE the metal from dust. So impressive I can't even stand it. Truly humbling to be in the presence of such greatness. He lives about a mile away right in our 'hood, and has an awesome set of tools.

This is a not so good photo of a part of a sword. It has an Adam and Eve theme. Click the photo to enlarge. The different colors are the different metals-they go all the way through the piece. The surface was etched as well with lettering and other images.

Knife making workshops are in my future!

The Sunday(today) demo was done by Chris Contos, a metal artist from Prescott. A former jeweler, he now does a lot of engraving on steel and some awesome repousse' work. Got to try out one of his chisels, and made a little spiral in some steel. So much playing to do...

Chris is using a chisel to engrave some steel.

This is one of his belt buckels, all hand engraved sterling with gold and copper accents. I'm so greatful the Universe wanted me to become part of this amazingly talented group of people. I look forward to learning many things from them, and maybe even get to share some of my ideas and techniques(I'm not feeling worthy yet) with the AABA. WOW