ArtMetal Features

Volume I Issue II

Above: Grave Memorial By Michael Roberts
From "Into the New Iron Age: Modern British Blacksmiths"

In this Issue...

Up to the nanosecond with your ArtMetal News

BAM keeps the fires hot forging damascus gun barrels, chains and flowers!
UMBA comes to the Web with their hefty by-monthly journal
SkipJack Press keeps us up to date with the "waves" newsletter

Discourses of the Resources

Modern British Blacksmiths go "Into the New Iron Age"
Copyrights/Copywrongs - Where is that VA Form?
Commissioning Artwork in Cyberspace - Can it be unfeigned?
Finding that great blacksmithing school and new suppliers add spice to the cake.

Step lightly on this SNAPSHOT - Will this egg crack?

BAM (Blacksmiths Association of Missouri)

"I must say Maurice Ellis has a nice shop, although the flowers on the anvils were a bit different. Rumor has it that Maurice has been forging outside using a brake drum forge and a piece of railroad track for an anvil ever since we had the First Fire Workshop."
...Jim McCarty

In the latest issue you will find that the world's greatest Ozark Conference blower cranker writes about the forging of a damascus gun barrel and BAM's editor explains how women and children forged chain for slave wages. You will also find how the BAM scholarship helped one man learn how to forge flowers. Many other tidbits of blacksmithing information will be found in the latest issue of the BAM newsletter.

UMBA (Upper Midwest Blacksmith Association)

UMBA is the latest addition to the ArtMetal News archives. They start by featuring Toby Hickman in " A Recap From The February Meeting's Demonstration" and Jeffrey D. Knight writes about "SLEDGE Team Striking Part IV or Head and shoulders." If you are from the Midwest, you shouldn't miss all the other happenings that are going on in the middle of the bread basket.

SkipJack Press brings additional "waves" to the Net

"Each and every event that we create has an effect on the entire cosmos. SkipJack Press launched a business to publish books about the metal arts and a few waves resulted. As other events occur more waves follow. waves is a newsletter to signal when the surf is up. We hope to create more waves and are looking for other books to publishsubmit your manuscript!"

John S. Munday (Jack) along with Jack Andrews, have been working with the Las Anonas Forge Project in El Salvador. Andrews is also the author of the "New Edge of the Anvil" and has received the Alex Bealer Award for 1995 from ABANA. Both Jacks are partners in SkipJack Press, Inc. which publishes books on the metal arts.

ArtMetal Book Review

Into the New Iron Age: Modern British Blacksmiths

Amina Chatwin

"It all entered our minds like a thunderbolt. Up to that conference I had been interested in historic ironwork but modern work meant nothing to me, mainly because I had never seen any really good examples... I have never known any conference like it, the very air was electric - it is no exaggeration to say that it changed our lives." ...Amina Chatwin
This month ArtMetal starts reviewing metalworking books with this outstanding overview. Cynthia Vega has taken the initiative to give you a worthwhile insight to this extraordinary book.

"The book is exceptionally well-researched, and the artists' profiles are personal as well as informative. The liberal use of high quality photographs alone make this book one that artists will want to refer to frequently out of interest or for inspiration. Perhaps most important is the obvious enthusiasm the writer has for the art of blacksmithing which gives the book a sense of vitality and makes it a pleasure to read."

Copyrights/Copywrongs

"The English poet Keats has said that 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' Whether by intention or by pleasant surprise, metalworking artisans occasionally create a thing of beauty and a work of art. The concern we have as artisans, therefore, is not whether the beauty will last but whether we will be able to reap the benefit from our work. In other words, while Emerson may have said 'The reward of a thing well done is to have done it' he made his living as a writer, not as a creator of beauty for the beholder. How does an artisan protect the beautiful thing that has been created?"

John S. Munday (Jack) is an intellectual property lawyer and part owner of SkipJack Press. Jack gives us some insights on how to copyright artistic metalwork.

Commissioning Artwork in Cyberspace

Whoever said that commissioning artwork over the Web is not a viable alternative for long distance communications between the designer and the client? This article documents the communications made via the Information Highway between the client, Bobbi Bridge of Mercer Island, Washington; and the designer, Enrique Vega of Apex, North Carolina.

Adding Spice to the Cake

Mark Williams and Roger Schmitt have been working hard to keep us updated with changes to the Supplier List. They have also included a comprehensive listing of blacksmithing schools in the US.

The supplier list contains these two NEW addresses:

Nina Designs
P.O. Box 5766
Santa Fe NM 87502
800 366 NINA
505 982 1214
Fax 505 982 1321
nina@nets.com
Internet Web Site address:
http/www.nets.com/nina
Her catalog is accessible via the Internet. Handmade silver bali beads &
components

Reactive Metals Studio, Inc.
P.O.Box 890
Clarkdale AZ 86324
800 876 3434
520 634 3434
reactive@sedona.net
Niobium, mixed metals, titanium & other exotic metals

SNAPSHOT

The SNAPSHOTs feature highlights metalsmiths from around the world. This month we visit with Hank Kaminsky, one of our very own gallery artists. Hank explains in detail the aesthetics and process of making this delicate egg from aluminum.

"The sculpture is made up of egg-words (like omelet, oeuf, scrambled, huevo, 'which came first') in an egg-shaped space. The words define the form of the sculpture but the egg is only implied by the word forms, not directly stated. The shape of the inside of the egg is only visible on the inside of the word forms.
Aside from having a little fun, I am concerned in this piece with two questions; the first deals with what it is that actually does the communicating in a work of art, and the other is about the relationship of technique to idea and the limitations this relationship places on the artist."...Hank Kaminsky

If you are interested in downloading previous SNAPSHOTs, go to the ArtMetal archives and FTP to the pic_mnth directory. There you will find previous months text files by artists name and the accompanying gif/jpeg files. Each set of files will have the same name with a suffix of .txt, .gif or .jpg.

Want to be featured in the "SNAPSHOT"? Send an email notice to Hank Kaminsky. There are several ways to get the information to him including snail mail.

ArtMetal Editor/Curator: Enrique Vega
Last Updated: Sat, Oct 14, 1995 4, 1995 ODY>