Well you've come back, glad to see you. There was a Monarch on the milkweed yesterday, beautiful thing. I think she laid some eggs. Can't see them yet but I'm pretty sure they are there. Seeing is such a confusing think. Our eyes take a picture, It's a very complex and detailed picture. Then our mind scans the picture for important information. It keeps the baseball that's coming at your head from hitting you instead of visualizing the cheerleader, also in your field of vision. The problem with scanning the things in front of us is that we miss some very interesting stuff. We can trick our minds into experiencing more and not just scanning. Drawing demands that we process more info than scanning gives us. Staring does the same thing. Zoom in zoom out. A good piece of sculpture demands that your hands touch it. Touch helps us see. Listen to yourself hammer on a piece of metal, Listening helps us see. I'm pretty sure what I've written, but I'm never sure what you've read. I enjoy that confusion. Yes I do write on two levels at the same time, enjoy. While we are at it let's stop the search for the right answer. and begin enjoying this journey. Oh Ok Then. hang on here we go.
You are going to need everything you needed last time, Except the Chinese food, throw that away, if you haven't already. Keep the box, it's a photogerasic pimento of the journey. Today you will need some hammers, some peanut butter, two slices of bread, a banana, a vise and maybe an anvil. One of your hammers should have a round face and be slightly convex. The other should have a long or rectangular face. You need a small piece of clay. About the size of a quarter is fine. Flatten out the ball of clay, tap it with your round hammer and observe. The hammer made a dent in the clay. ok you affected the flat sheet of clay in all directions from the hammer blow. Ah ha. Repeat this with the other hammer. observe, you made a rectangular shaped dent in the clay, ok. The clay moved more in two directions this time. Ah ha.. Take a break. make your sandwich, keep the peel. ponder the effects of hammering on clay. repeat the experiment on a small pc of copper. Try a rectangular long pc see it you can make it grow in length. See if you can make that pc curve to one side then the other..Ah ha. try it with the round hammer, same? different? ah ha let's put a fold in a pc of copper that doesn't reach the edges of the sheet. Forge that fold. Let's do that again this time hammer close to the fold but not right on the fold. From the side this should look like a cotter pin. good thing.. Those are some variations on line folds. and ways to apply them. We have been hammering on the flat side of a sheet of metal. Let's do something different. Take your sheet of copper, make one of those cotter pin folds across the sheet. Then lets put it in the vise, so that the fold stands up slightly from the jaws of the vise..hammer the fold, Either hammer,
hammer a little leave a space, hammer some more. Take this out of the vise, open it up. Declare it cool, you can do that you know. That was a T fold. You can tell cause if you make a Capital T and trace around it, then grab the T by the bottom and LOOK AT YOUR TRACING that's the shape that you made by folding and hammering on the fold. there are some fun things you can discover here. place your fold parallel to the jaws. place the fold at an angle to the jaws. place the fold so that it extends into the jaws space, hammer only part of the fold. Open up these folds and ponder them. Keep them. They are reminders signposts on this journey. Have you eaten that sandwich? Get the banana peel. I mentioned a field trip. Stare at the banana peel you should see two segments of the peel joined together by an organic line fold. If you didn't see that it means that you peeled one segment at a time . Spit out that gum ! you are a miserable failure, at banana peeling! No that's the worlds way, not mine. Just get another banana. Wow so cool a reward for discovering something unexpected. ok about the field trip, at the same place that you chose to read current posts was the opportunity to go to favorite books. In there is a book by Seppa. It describes a new way of looking at the world, one that's been needed for observing things like fold forming, It'll help. The banana peel is interesting 'cause the open side of the form is worked rather that the folded edge. Until we fold again fold some, hammer some ponder some. Throw away the peeling your brain filed the concept. More later. Brad
Sorry you'll have to buy the book. but now you know why you want to.
