[TheForge] Re: Demos

[dann]

Thank you to everyone who has contributed.
I have been keeping a running "cut and paste" of ideas offered for 
blacksmithing  demos.

The past 8 years, I have had the privilege of attending  a  few score of 
blacksmith demonstrations at ABANA Chapter Conferences.   Compared to my 
college  instructors,  these blacksmith demonstrators   rate very highly.

In my opinion,  the best  "teaching " demonstration  was by Charles Orlando 
at  Baraboo, Wi last summer.   Charley  used  common modeling clay as 
if  it were steel, with  his hammer and anvil  to illustrate how the 
steel  would react.  Then he repeated the process  with hot steel.

I have had the pleasure of  doing hundreds of public  rope making 
demonstrations , yet  I always enjoy watching someone else demonstrate the 
art.  That way I can gather  ideas  on a better spiel.  I believe  that I 
can  improve most,  by  better verbal banter with the public.

Always  when I demonstrate,  the verbal  banter is the most difficult, yet 
I believe, the most important  part.   In my opinion,  it  isn't the miles 
of rope that we  twist, or the  pounds of iron we  transform at a 
demonstration; rather it is the ideas that are shared with the participants 
in the audience.

Didn't some one on this list  have a saying  as their signature, something 
like  " all   medicine   is   poison when overdosed "?   For  me that is 
the same as, " to many irons in the fire".

Dann Johnson