Latest Blogs

The High-Board

byJohan se - Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 12:41am

» read more | byJohan se's blog | login or register to post comments

Forged Stainless Steel Torque

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Monday, February 20, 2012 - 2:58am

Forged Stainless Steel Torque: Torque(Celtic neck ring) forged from stainless steel.For this forged stainless steel torque,I started with 3/8ths solid square stock.I removed a fair amount of material for the 6 inch section that goes behind the back of the neck.I then ,(using the grinder)tapered the last 4 inches on both ends.I forged the ends into spirals then set about the twist patterns.The bar was still straight at this point except for the forged spirals on the ends.I did a soft grind and polish to remove the scratches,then with the final heat forged the bar around a pre-made form to the shape you see...

» read more | Stephen Fitz-Gerald's blog | login or register to post comments

Hollywood Opportunity for Blacksmiths

Rich Waugh - Friday, February 17, 2012 - 3:11pm

acting | blacksmithing | competition | contest | TV

Hey there, ArtMetal people – I recently received an email from Joey Gemelli of Pilgrim Studios in California. Joey is the casting producer for a new Discovery Channel TV reality show to be called “Top Engineer” and wanted me to help him get some applicants for spots in the cast. Joey said he thought it would be really cool if a metal artist could make it onto the show, so he’s looking for artist blacksmiths to apply. This really is a legitimate deal, not a scam, so I’m passing it on. It sounds like it could be fun.

Pilgrim Studios is looking for, in Joey’s words, “America’s most creative and daring techies, machinists, inventors and engineers to design, build and BLAST their way to a Grand Prize on their new competition TV show TOP ENGINEER.”

Searching for an identity

Joe B - Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 9:49am

business name | perceptions

How come I keep getting HTTP error 404 messages when I try to type in comma separated words in the tags field?
That's not the subject of my blog. I am searching for a name for my decorative ironworks business. A name is an important thing when it comes to people's perception of who you are and what you do. I do fine hand forged ironwork, using traditional blacksmith tools and techniques. The term blacksmith is one I am proud of, but it carries a lot of baggage and connotations that are unhelpful. Most everyone immediately thinks I do horseshoes even though I bill myself as an artist blacksmith. I have used the name Cocorico Forge in the past. This name has problems because no one knows how to pronounce Cocorico and some customers have even shown anger when I say it is a French word for what a rooster says each morning. So I'd like a name that is easily pronounced, lacking in foreigness, lacking in political or religious connotations, and reflective of the work I do. Perhaps I should create a symbol for the blacksmith formerly known as ?

» read more | Joe B's blog | 4 comments

New Chopsticks

Stephen Fitz-Gerald - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - 3:29pm

chopsticks

Finally found my cheap, dumb CAD program!

Rich Waugh - Sunday, February 12, 2012 - 9:03am

design | drawing

For years now I've been using an old legacy CAD program to do my mechanical drawings and job sketches, but it won't run on Windows 7 64-bit at all and is badly wonky on 32-bit. Over time I've gotten really comfortable with it and all the other CAD programs I've tried out had too long a learning curve for me, so I had to set up a separate computer just run that old program. Until now.

Rowing the Atlantic

Giusseppe - Saturday, February 11, 2012 - 5:05pm

fountains | gates | lights | railings | stairs

I am planning to row the Atlantic solo in 2013.
I want to fund the row myself and use the 3000nm trip to raise money for fresh water wells in countries where the need is desperate.
The only way I can raise the 100k needed for such an adventure is to do what I do best ...make metalwork.

Clean Slate XIV

byJohan se - Sunday, February 5, 2012 - 4:13am

» read more | byJohan se's blog | login or register to post comments

hello and question about who buys this stuff

Joe B - Saturday, February 4, 2012 - 4:01pm

Artist Blacksmith

Hi gang,
I hope I'm posting to the right place. This is my first time using the forum and unsure but here goes.
I am an artist blacksmith residing and working in Knoxville, TN. I've been a blacksmith off and on since 1979 but mostly as a hobby except for a while during 2000 to 2004 when I tried making money at it. Now I have jumped in the deep end of the pool and hope to make a living from it. I have hooked up with a bunch named SCORE which is a group of retired business people who donate their time to act as mentors for people like me. I understand the basics of business because we ran our own electronics design consulting business for six years. What I don't understand is how to advertise and market my fine hand forged ironwork. We know that craft shows are not necessarily the best way from previous experience. But galleries seem to charge large amounts (in one case 60% !) for selling my work and they get a commission for anything I sell within 100 miles of them.