[TheForge] Re: File Making, sniffing up wrought iron

[Andrew Vida]

Jerry Frost wrote:
> 

> Too many "artists" seem to have fallen into the myth that they need to 
> be starving to be real artists. It's a load of BS in the extreme, mostly 
> perpetrated by the middleman with no creative talents but a desire for 
> good living.

	Whose responsibility is it to not fall victim to people who are looking 
after their own best interests?  But I so agree with you about the 
"suffering artist" crap.  It is a demented romantic notion that probably 
serves no other purpose than to supply a steady supply of misery and 
justification for those who refuse to "sell out".  Sure.
> 
> We have one guy in our organization who lives an hour's flight from the 
> nearest city and he does beautiful work. He has to pay a buck a lb to 
> get coal or propane shipped in on top of buying it in the first place. 
> He spends 30-45 mins hand forging and finishing (no power tools for him) 
> a coat hook and can't bring himself to charge more than $10 for it. This 
> is in a town where gas was $5/gl two years ago and is over $8 now. A 
> place where shipping nearly triples the price AFTER it gets of AK.

	How does he live?  Probably not very well.  Sad.
> 
> What's he say when asked why he charges so little? "Well. . . they're 
> just replacing a 16d nail after all. I can't charge my friends so much, 
> etc."
> 
> If he were marketing his work properly the people in his town couldn't 
> afford his work, it'd all be going outside to HIGH end markets. The snob 
> appeal of having hand wrought iron work made from salvaged gold rush 
> wrought iron in a log smithy on the banks of the Yukon River hundreds of 
> miles from civilization would be irresistable.

	Tell HIM that. :)