[TheForge] Re: repeated , repeated, repeated content!!!!

[Mike Spencer]

Paul Matthaei wrote:

> I have been a member for several yr's now and a WORKING blacksmith, (how I
> make money) and in that time I have found in those yr's few things of any
> value???

So, looking at your web site, your work is pretty cool, technically
and conceptually diverse and evinces a parsimony of style that should
keep the cost of time down. Why in the world have you been reading a
mailing list for *several years*, where you find "few things of any
value"?  Say what?

> I don't have a smithy or a studio, I have a shop. I get up in the
> morning and have my coffee and scroll through the enlist drivel...

Was that supposed to be "elitist drivel"?  Well, we'uns amateurs and
wannabes do natter on, don't we?  But the Columbus Arts Festival says
you're an "artist". The keyword meta tag on your own web page includes
"metal artwork, art metal, artist". The Paradise City Arts Festival
calls you a "furniture designer". So why do you have a chip on your
shoulder about "studio" or "atelier"?  You're a blacksmith and a
"smithy" is another, albeit archaic, word for a blacksmith shop.

Just to get a bit technical here, the US Dept. of Labor Index of
Occupations classifies "blacksmith" as a blue-collar trade with low
intellectual and educational requirements.  According to the official
job description, blacksmiths take direction and work under someone who
does the thinking. On the other hand, "ornamental metalwork designers"
design stuff, work with clients and architects, do blueprints and
specifications, supervise blacksmiths and *also* forge or fabricate
ornamental metalwork.  So when it comes to dealing with government or
any big, impersonal corporate or other similar entity who may be
looking up your credentials in the DOL book, it behooves you (and the
rest of us, as well) to be an "ornamental metalwork designer" with a
studio or atelier, not a "blacksmith" with a shop.  Image matters.

In naval terms, the DOL classification says that ornamental metalwork
designers are officers but blacksmiths are just swabbies.

> ...perhaps this list should be titled in two sections.......WORKING
> blacksmiths and those playing at it.

Maybe you take "work" too seriously.

  My object in life is to unite my avocation with my vocation, as my
  two eyes are one in sight.  -- Robert Frost

> There is a lot wrong here but I don't have the time to go over
> the list this yr.

Too bad. ;-)


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^