[TheForge] anvils ring letter

[David R. Crowell]

----- Original Message -----
From: Larry and Pat Brown <lp.brown@verizon.net>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] anvils ring letter


> Women in Blacksmithing, I kind of agree with him that the horse has been
> over ridden. An occasional reminder to the public is fine, but I don't
> consider metal work to be gender specific and I don't need to have it
> pointed out to me constantly. There are many woman smiths who's work I
> admire but only as one person with a hammer admiring anothers work, I am
> not amazed that they can do it.

Watching Roberta (Bert) Elliot work iron is amazing. To see a comparitively
small person move iron the way she does is a great argument against the "if
you're not built like Charles Atlas forget smithing" cliche. Has nothing to
do with she's a woman though. So I agree we don't need more "Wow! Women can
do blacksmithing!"


>
> The railing on the cover of the Fall AR 2001 does have visible arc welds,
> but they are cleaned up well and the design is nice. I don't know if it is
> good cover material but I don't know what the editors selection was
either.
> I feel that the AR cover could shoot for a higher standard, as this would
> be more appropriate for NOMMA'S Fabricator cover.
> L Brown
>
True enough. Nothing wrong with arc welds in modern smithing, and nothing
wrong with using them to produce art either. Putting them on display on the
cover, well that sort of bothers me a bit.  Non-traditional work is good, it
inspires us all to stretch a bit. The cover of AR should be our showcase of
the very best. I want to see work that makes me say "Wow!" and drag my
non-smithing friends over to look at it.  That said I didn't particularly
notice the welds on the cover first time around.



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