[TheForge] ABANA cook-out

[Ries Niemi]

On Jul 12, 2006, at 5:12 PM, Chris Worsley wrote:

> Is anyone going to say anything in detail about the conference other 
> than a few comments on the BBQ?
> Seems like a waste of  TheForge.
> Maybe no one watched any demos or saw anything new, just ate oysters 
> and drank beer.
>

Dont be dissing the oysters.

The conference was incredible, of course.
Mostly I go for the people.
Sure, I watch demos, although this year I didnt sit for 3 hours and 
watch any from start to finish.
Demos I enjoyed included

  E.A. Chase, doing his air hammer repousse on copper- he does very 
personal work- defintely his own style, evolved over 50 years or so.

The Chilean Sculptor, Francisco Gazitua, who demoed making a small 
horse, about 18" long, from about 30 or 40 finely forged pieces which 
fit together like a puzzle, when the last one locked in place the whole 
thing became rigid- he is making a series of life size horses like this 
for a ridgeline in Chile, and they sing when the wind blows over their 
metal surfaces.

Corky Storer did some of his industrial strength repousse- he watered 
it down for the demo, in the interest of time, only using 1/8" steel 
plate- normally he likes 1/4" or thicker- he uses big shipyard air 
hammers and a giant propane rosebud to move the steel inches and 
inches- I will definitely try this sometime.

Phillip Baldwin, with assistance from Jim Binnion, did  a midnight seat 
of the pants Mokume-Gane demo, making Mokume under the most 
uncontrolled circumstances, ending up with a copper/bronze/nickel 
silver spear point.

Jim Wallace aka Wally, assisted by Baldwin, Jeff Funk, and others, 
forged harpoons in the lake, with 3 anvils waist deep, surrounded by a 
pod of inflatable killer whales. A slight re-edit of the storyline of 
Moby Dick, a lot of jokes, some forge welding, and eventual harvesting 
of free range bio-diesel resulted- you kinda had to be there.

The gallery, both official and walk-in, was full of great stuff. 2 
retrospectives of work- Russell Jacqua and Doug Hendrickson.
Lots of big sculpture outside on the grounds.

Tom Joyce gave a very interesting talk about the hard issues we all 
usually try to ignore- the moral issues of our work, where the metal 
comes from, the history of the craft as it relates to civilisation and 
society, trying to do good work, art, and keep your sideburns too. Most 
of us tend to keep our heads down and think about the piece of hot iron 
in front of us, which is hard enough. But Tom was trying to point out 
that as citizens of the world, we owe the world more, and as thinking, 
living souls, we owe ourselves more, and he talked about it in a very 
thoughtprovoking, elegant way.
Plus he showed slides of his recent 3 month residency at Scott Forge, 
using their men and equipment to make sculptures with multi-ton pieces 
of steel and 20,000 ton presses.

Lots of cool toys, both new and old, for sale.

And one of the most eclectic, informed, wide ranging group of people 
you could ever hope to see, or sit and have a beer with outside by the 
lake. Somebody there was an expert on anything you can imagine.

Hot fun in the summertime.
Just dont diss the oysters.


Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com