Jeff in the Forge Preparing for the 14th Fairfax Civil War Day

Jeff likes to feature a project every demo season.  This past fall, he demonstrated leaf hooks.  The leaf hooks were great because Jeff’s version of these hooks showed many basic blacksmithing skills in a quickly-moving project so many people could see those techniques (i.e. taper, twist, punch, etc…) within a 15- 20 minute time frame.  The hooks were perfect.  

With our first demo coming up on April 26th at the 14th Fairfax Civil War Day at Historic Blenheim (I saw an advertisement for the event when I flipped through the Weekend section of the Washington Post the other day!), Jeff is thinking through what he’d like to feature this spring.  He was toying with the heart he made in February so he went out to the forge to try various methods of making them. 

He’d hoped to be able to fashion them around the horn of the anvil, but wasn’t pleased with how that worked.  So, you still have time to vote on various projects you’d like to see made!  

Announcing Our Spring and Summer Demo Schedule!

As spring begins, we are working at Mount Vernon and Jeff is teaching blacksmithing classes before the summer heat arrives.  If you are interested in a class or two, this is the time to do it!  We are still finalizing some details, but this is how our spring and summer demo schedule is shaping up:  

April 26 - 14 Fairfax Civil War Day (10 a.m. - 5 p.m.) in Fairfax, Virginia.  This is a new event for us, but we are excited to participate in support of Historic Blenhein. Plus, with cannons, living history encampments, period music by “Home Front,” tours of the Historic Blenheim House and grounds, hayrides, and more, it looks like a lot of fun!

May 3 - Wye Colonial Fair (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) in Wye Mills, Maryland.  This will be our 3rd year demo’ing at this lovely church festival, complete with wagon rides, a May Pole, good food, children’s activities, a Blessing of the Animals service and a beautiful church building. Last year, my kids learned to make char cloth at this event….we are excited to see what this year brings! 

May 18-19 - Claude Moore Colonial Fair (11 a.m. - 4 p.m.) in McLean, Virginia.  Our longest-standing demo, we don’t miss a fair!  Fencing, great food, wonderful children’s activities, very nice plants for the garden, all on a small-scale so it is enjoyable for everyone. 

June 7 - Raiders and Invaders (12 p.m. - 6 p.m.) in Leonardtown, Maryland.  This War of 1812 commemoration looks to be a lot of fun!  The event is June 6-8, but we’ll only be demo’ing on the 7th. 

From the event’s website: “Site of no great battles but with a whole lotta raiding going on by those ornery  British, the war years of 1813 and 1814 were pretty much a bummer for local folks.  Two centuries later, let us harken back to those years of raiding and invading.  We’ll bring you some serious history, but we’re throwing-in more than a dollop of tongue-in-cheek fun.   Find street theater, circus arts and invasion route boat tours—plus our own British Invasion—1960s style!”

June 21-22 - War of 1812 Fair and Reenactment (10 a.m.- 4 p.m., with evening activities on the 21st) at Jefferson Patterson Park, Maryland.  We’ve done this War of 1812 Commemoration the past two years, but this is a bigger, 2-day event that promises to be amazing. We’ve seen their reenacted battles before and they do it well!  

July 19-20 - Claude Moore Colonial Fair (11 a.m. - 4 p.m.) in McLean, Virginia. 

August 13-16 - ABANA National Conference in Harrington, Delaware.  Jeff is on the board of ABANA, but even if he wasn’t, he’d be attending the conference.  It’s a great way to see many different types of blacksmithing — what a learning experience!   

August 23 - The Battle of Bladensburg Commemoration in Bladensburg, Maryland (11 a.m. - 5 p.m., with additional evening activities).    This is our final 1812 event of the summer season and it promises to be a good one, complete with fireworks over the Anacostia River! 

Getting Ready to Revisit the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake

We take what we do as historical interpreters very seriously, which means there are usually various piles of history books around the house. I am scheduled to work at Mount Vernon next week and have already made a mental note to double-check the number of sheep Washington had on his farms during the years we interpret there!  :-)  

This year, though, we are also studying up on the history of the War of 1812, specifically in the Chesapeake. Maryland is celebrating the bicentennial of the war, and we are already booked for three events in June and August (more details to come).  While there are many wonderful resources available, we are finding "The Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake" to be amazingly helpful.   It’s tremendously well-researched, and we are having a great time studying up on the various places where we’ll have blacksmithing demos.  

With the research well underway, we just need to find a seamstress to adjust my 1812 gown by June!  Details, details….  :-)  

Please note — We are not connected with the authors or publishers of “The Fully Glory” in any way.  We are just enjoying it as a great resource.  

We are happy to share this video of Jeff with you.  It was made by Brian Szymanski and we think he did a fabulous job!  Thanks, Brian!

Forging a Piece for a Cradle and Community, Too!

About a month or so ago, we were contacted by someone who had found us on the Internet.  He had a new baby and wanted a piece forged for the baby’s cradle.  His grandfather had forged the original pieces and one was in need of replacement.  We have young kids and can easily recall those sleep-deprived first months, so Jeff got right on this request.

When Jeff reached out via email to discuss shipping the finished piece, the address that we received surprised us.  Jeff asked me if it sounded familiar…and it did…it was about 3 miles down the road.  That’s pretty incredible!  But, then, the address seemed even more familiar when the man gave us his last name for the shipping….

It turned out that this young family with a new baby was a family that we’d taken a meal to through our church’s food ministry just the week before!  We’d never met them before but our church has a wonderful ministry of providing meals to folks who could use a break so we’d signed up and Jeff had delivered supper.   He’d dropped off the food to the family….having no idea at all that he was also chatting with the husband via email about ironwork.  It was a funny, wonderful coincidence.   

Heart of Iron (But in a Really Good Way!)

Jeff forged the most beautiful heart as my Valentine’s gift.  Made out of 1/2 inch square bar with a twist on the two sides and whale tail ends for the point of the heart, it is a gorgeous piece.  It’s substantial, yet decorative…a lovely combination.  

He’ll probably continuing to work on this theme in the near future, so please let us know if you are interested in one for your home.  As always, you can email us at inquiries@blackforestartworks.com.   I am envisioning small Christmas ornaments or maybe a larger piece of sculpture for the garden as versions that I’d like to see.  

This heart, though, is hanging in our living room window.  Thank you, Jeff!

Blacksmithing Doesn't Stop in the Winter

Some might think that the winter is a slow time around here, and it it true that we aren’t spending every weekend teaching at a demo.  But, Jeff is still plenty busy in the forge.  He’s teaching quite a bit, and also working on a bunch of commissions.  

We haven’t done a very good job of documenting the work, but he and his friend Vince have made seven rookers (a very popular holiday gift this year, it seems!), a fireplace shovel, a colonial shovel, four ladles with copper cups, angled shelf brackets for bar top (complete with twists and hooks for purses), a lot of leaf hooks, and several colonial cooking forks. 

Vince has also made a lot of shoe/boot/hoof picks, in between all the other projects.  Next up on the list are some hinges, a set of 2 1/2 inch-wide legs for a table made from a ship’s hatch, and stands for two small gargoyles. 

Jeff also really wants to spend some time on the ABANA curriculum grill this winter, as well.

And, we are starting to finalize the spring and summer demo season, so if you are interested, please let us know!  

Jeff in a Documentary

Jeff was recently asked to be in a documentary as part of a friend’s college class.  Of course, he said, “yes!” (he’s that kind of guy!) and the forge was turned into a movie studio.  It was a fun learning experience and we can’t wait to see the final footage.  Thanks, Brian!

 

The 1st Annual Black Forest ArtWorks Thanksgiving Forge-a-thon!

We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving morning than by inviting friends over to forge together.  Granted, it could have been warmer, but we had pumpkin pie and a fire going, not to mention the forge itself! 

What a great new tradition to start!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!! 

Demo at St. Albans

What a way to end our fall demo season!  We enjoyed a lovely day at St. Albans in D.C., where several teachers at the school had designed their early fall curriculum around something related to blacksmithing, (i.e. Adam Smith, the importance of metal and forging to world civilizations, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the industrialization of Europe, etc…) and asked us to teach and demonstrate to those various topics.  

We have met thousands and thousands of interesting people while demo’ing for four+ years, but we’ve never had a demo start with student-written odes to metallurgy!  

In addition, all the students and teachers got the opportunity to make (and take!) a colonial-style nail.  

It was just the sort of demo that Jeff and I love to do, and we are very thankful for the opportunity to work with St. Albans.  Also, we’d like to thank the members of the football team and other student athletes for helping us load our equipment afterwards!

Recent Photography Honors

My photo “Sugar Cookies” will be included in an exhibition titled “Feast” at Darkroom Gallery opening November 14th.  

In addition, “Autumn Reflections” was honored with an “honorable mention” award and is on display at the following galleries, as part of exhibitions supporting River to Well:

• Lawrence, Kansas — Signs of Life Gallery, November 8


• Minneapolis, Minnesota — Ambiente Gallerie, December 6, through January 1. 

Finally, several of my photographs were used in a recent newspaper article about Montessori students studying, raising, and releasing Monarch butterflies: 

The article and photos are on page 22 of this edition: 

http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2013/110613/Mt%20Vernon.pdf

Demo at Peirce Mill Heritage Day

We recently demo’d at the Peirce Mill Heritage Day and had a nice time visiting with folks at this small, but lovely, event.  The mill operated a few times during our demo and other people demonstrated various crafts.

 

We focused on making nails and a few hooks during our time at the festival.  We were blessed to spend some quality time with visitors, which is always our goal — teaching and making connections is our focus.  

At one point, a young boy who had been watching and watching….and came back to watch some more, said to me, “You mean, you’re married to him? (gesturing to Jeff at the anvil).  I said that I was.  ”That’s so cool!!!” he replied.  Jeff chimed in that he totally agreed.  It was a priceless moment.  

Happy Halloween!

Our kids were super excited to go Trick-or-Treating tonight.  Jeff wasn’t sure about getting dressed up.  I thought that was hilarious, given how often we get dressed up in costume for various blacksmithing demos.  We’ve been dressed in costume twice this week already!  Why not add on one more night, especially for the kids?!

Happy Halloween!

A Gathering of Friends at Claude Moore's Colonial Market Fair

We had a wonderful time at Claude Moore Colonial Farm’s October Market Fair.  It was truly a gathering of friends on both sides of the safety ropes, as we had friends forging with us and as we also got to catch up with lots of regular visitors.  We’ve been doing these Market Fairs for the past 4 years and it’s always nice to see everyone. 

We focused on forging rookers and votive candleholders both days of the fair.  And, what’s a Market Fair without turkeys or geese roaming the grounds, not to mention the famous call of “Bread, Bread for Sale”…?

Please mark your calendars now for the May Market Fair at Claude Moore on May 18th and 19th— we’d love to see you!