Volume I Issue II

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

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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?

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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

BAM newsletter

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UMBA (Upper Midwest Blacksmith Association)

UMBA" A Recap From The February Meeting's Demonstration""SLEDGE Team Striking Part IV or Head and shoulders."

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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 publish�submit your manuscript!"

"New Edge of the Anvil"

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ArtMetal Book Review

Into the New Iron Age: Modern British Blacksmiths

Amina Chatwin

"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."

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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.

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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.

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Adding Spice to the Cake

Supplier List blacksmithing schools

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
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
 Niobium, mixed metals, titanium & other exotic metals

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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