Happy Easter

A Thanksgiving Holiday in Williamsburg

While the highlight of the holiday had to be Jeff's chance to work in the Colonial Williamsburg blacksmith's shop, we also enjoyed the holiday decorations, a lovely rental house that was not in Williamsburg but could have been because it was so period-correct, Rev Quest (the spy game), and York River State Park.

Xander discovered that every fence hides something amazing, like sheep!

Happy Halloween!

Lest you think we might not have celebrated, here's a photo from an all-day teaching demo at St. Albans School.  I will post more about this demo later. We had a fantastic time.

 It was our third year of working closely with the school to tie blacksmithing into their curriculum, and it just gets better and better.  This year, we added some silliness, as the high school boys were given a "free dress" day and many had dressed up for Halloween.   Some teachers dressed up as well.  In this photo, Jeff was teaching John Campbell (one of our friends who is also a teacher at the school) how to make a nail.   I have to say, we've never had a demo before with Hamlet!

Not Too Late for Holiday Lights!

I know I’m a bit behind, but we still could use some holiday lighting, I’m sure. Holiday cheer should never go out of style!  These photos are from a very lovely evening at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens at their Winter Walk of Lights, shot w/ my 35 mm lens.  Many thanks to our friends for introducing us to a very special holiday tradition!

Happy Easter!

 

Valentines Made by the Boys

Both my boys need to make homemade Valentines for their school friends.  We headed off to the local craft store but could only find materials in the usual pink or red...with lots of frills.  Those things definitely weren't going to work for my boys, despite the fact that they know that pink was considered a masculine color back in the Colonial period!

So, we revisited an idea that we've used in years past to make a more gender-neutral Valentine.  We bought coffee filters and cut them into hearts.  Then, the boys put food coloring on the filters to turn them into various shades of red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple....and sometimes brown, if the boys got a little heavy-handed squirting food coloring everywhere!  After the hearts dried, we glued them onto brightly-colored card stock.

The Valentines look great!

A Bit of Beach Time

 
After a few days at the beach with our family, Jeff is back at the Mount Vernon forge to celebrate New Year's Eve and Day.   The break was welcome, but we found ourselves chatting on the long drive about upcoming demos for the next year and our various creative goals.   The upcoming year is looking full, indeed!

 

Look for a notice soon about a tool-making class that Jeff wants to start up in the next week or so (probably on Sunday afternoons)....and also a repeat of his beginning smithing class, too!  If you are interested, please let us know.



Add caption

Happy Holidays From Blackforest ArtWorks

Happy Holidays from Black Forest ArtWorks!

We've had an incredible year filled with blacksmithing, photography, living history demonstrations and even a few creative ventures outside our "comfort zones" (i.e. icon-writing and basket-making, anyone?!).  It's been a lot of fun but the best part has been spending time with old friends and making new ones. Thank you so much for being part of our 2012. We are excited to see what next year brings! 

Jeff and Caitlin

                                                                                                                          

Holiday Art Projects

 

Every year, we try to decorate a few ornaments for our tree.  This year, we worked from an idea I'd seen on a blog (I can't recall the source at the moment) where someone had melted bits of crayons inside glass ornaments using a hair dryer.  We tried it with oil pastels.  The effect is striking!