Work of my Classmates

Fun fact, posts don't post themselves. Forgot to hit the "publish post" button yesterday.. So without further ado, yesterday's post:

What I didn’t get to photograph was Paul’s Plant hanger he made for his garden. My camera died the moment I was about to snap the shutter. It was a longer take on the rest of our plant hangers and had a neat decorative twist in the “leg.” At the base, for stability, he joined a spike by a mortise and tenon joint, another method of joinery Susan taught us.

On most of our plant hangers we used a simple strap hinge to attach the decorative twists:

This is a picture of my unfinished plant hanger. The best way to describe strap hinges is by comparing them to metal band aids. They are thin strips of metal formed to fit snugly against the pieces that they are holding.

Above is Jennifer’s final work that she put on display at the “show and tell.” She chose to make an S -scroll to place inside of her plant hanger. Also pictured is her coat rack and a fire poker and two other decorative objects.

What was really cool about her fire poker is that it included three forge welds. Forge welds are what they sound like, welds made with a forge and a coal fire. The end, which didn’t come out so well in this picture, was actually four pieces of quarter inch steel welded together at the ends so to allow the middle to freely move when heated. When the quarter inch pieces are welded like so they can be twisted and “opened up.” The third forge weld was made to connect the four pieces of quarter inch stock to a half inch piece of stock with a split at the end to handle logs. A better picture of the handle part is below.

These were Jeff’s final pieces. He actually opened up his twist to allow room for marbles. Also, note the drawer pulls that he created. He worked meticulously to make matching sets.

Yesterday I woke up early to go up to talk with a professor at the American College of the Building Arts. Its a relatively new college, started up after Hurricane Hugo hit, when the city of Charleston realized that they didn't have any local crafts people to do the massive amounts of needed restoration work. The iron program is in the hands of Jay Close who ran the blacksmithing program at Colonial Williamsburg for the past 30 years. According to Lance Crowe, the other professor, the job of master-smith at Williamsburg is a coveted position.

The college is small but made up of a unique group of focused individuals. Because most people hear about the college through the internet around 20 or more states are represented..

Today, Wednesday, was an exercise in relaxation. The weather took a turn for the better and it was just about 50 or so with a cool breeze. I spent the the day reading Hemingway's short stories, swinging in the hammock and napping. Tomorrow I go back to Savannah and into a welcome warm front.