Artist / Blacksmith Charlie Spademan

I’ve been working for the last few days on a new photo gallery for my work, as I have never been particularly satisfied with the presentation of the slideshow that I had linked to this site. Additionally, I wanted to have a separate album for the pictures that Jackie Yarmo had taken of my studio a week or so ago. The link to my new photo gallery is HERE, as well as in the sidebar to the right. It is still very much a work in progress, lots to do with labeling and re-ordering pictures, etc., but I was anxious to get it out there.

…from scratch. Though I liked the small pair of machine-made scissors that I used in the sample (click to see sample) for BangZ, I felt that they seemed a bit “alien” to the rest of the artwork, as all other elements were hand-made by me. Thus; today I made shears, finishing 4 pair. I’ll probably need 4 or 5 more, in a different size.

My first pair, resting on my anvil

A couple of months ago, I  received a letter from a Montclair High School senior asking whether I would consider taking him on as an intern, as part of the School’s “Senior Options” program.  The program encourages seniors who have completed their scholastic requirements to find an internship working in their field of  interest for the last month of their senior year, and prepare a presentation on the experience.  Though I had some serious reservations about accepting his request, primarily because of safety issues, I decided to meet with Stephen Rooney and explore the idea a little further.  Steve had contacted me because he had an active interest in blacksmithing and iron artwork.  He will be going to Alfred University in the fall to pursue these interests.  He already has more formal education in the craft than do I, having taken several courses at Peters Valley Craft Center, whereas I am almost entirely self-taught.  After meeting Steve and finding that he was a person I would enjoy getting to know better, and considering how much I would have valued a similar experience when I was in his position, I decided to accept his request.  Steve began his internship with me this past Monday.  We spent much of the day on Monday just going over the shop and its tools.  I’ll let Steve talk about what he’s been doing; He has started a blog about his experiences, which I’ve posted over on the right side of this page under Weblinks as Stephen Rooney’s Blog

It’s clear to me, after working with Steve for a couple of days, that this will be as much as a learning experience for me as it will for Steve.  I’m looking forward to it!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since I was at Art in the Park! When I started this blog, I had intentions of writing every couple of days; I see now that it’s been almost three weeks since my last post. Lots has been going on, and the task of writing to keep up with it has seemed overwhelming.

BangZ Salon has had the new doors that I will be creating the artwork for on order for months, but has only received them this past Friday. I was very hesitant to proceed further with the artwork without having the doors; now that they are here, full speed ahead! The break between working on the handrails and the door artwork did allow me time to create a couple of pieces for Art in the Park; I’ve posted pictures below. Both pieces are 100% hand forged. The trellis measures 29″ x 44″, and is about 3 1/2″ thick.  Though intended as a wall-mounted objet d’art or sculpture, I can picture this motif being used as a fireplace screen or a panel in a railing.  I created something similar for a residence in Sparta NJ that served to divide the space between the kitchen and living areas.  I have pictures of it posted if you follow the link on the right side of this page to a slideshow of some of my recent work.  The andirons are forged from 1 1/2″ thick square bar. Both pieces are available for sale, please inquire if you are interested.

I’ve also been able to complete a private commission for some handrails, pictures coming shortly, after I’m done with installing them. Other time has been spent working on proposals for potential future commissions.

I’ve had a couple of visitors to my studio this past week. One was from Israel Cronk, General Manager of BangZ, who was really pleased with what he saw of the completed handrails. Israel has posted a couple of photos of his visit here. One of my oldest and closest friends, Jackie Yarmo, visited with her camera as well. Jackie took over 600 shots, and has sent me a selection of those she prefers. I am really looking forward to sharing them and am working on assembling them into a gallery for this site; more in a future post.

I’d be delighted to hear from anyone visiting this site. If you feel inclined, please leave a comment saying hello, and perhaps where you’re from. I seem to be getting a fair number of visitors here, but seldom do I know who they are, apart from being a statistic.

Charlie at Art in the Park. Photo by Susan Ross.

This weekend (May 2nd - 4th) is Montclair’s “Art in the Park”, a juried fine arts and crafts show, held this year in and around the Montclair Art Museum. I committed to do it before proceeding on the BangZ commission, and have found myself rather panicked over the last few weeks about exactly what I was going to show.  As virtually all of my work is commissioned, I rarely have any unsold pieces to display, and my time has been almost completely consumed with work on BangZ’s project. I decided to put most of my energy into my display “booth” itself, if you could call it that. It’s rather more like a pergola, made of hand forged iron and wood. I have finished a pair of andirons, and hope to have finished a piece of wall sculpture as well. Additionally, I have some large format pictures of some of my previous work, and will bring examples of the tooling I used to create them. BangZ is loaning me back a couple of samples that I created for them as part of my proposal for their work; I will display them as well. For more information about the show, I have a link to the Art in the Park website, over on the right hand side of this page. Hope to see you there!

I’ve spent the last few days making leaves for the door artwork. In two days, I’ve probably made 100 or so, though I’ll reject about a quarter of them. The process of making them is absolutely deafening, with the noise of the 100 pound air hammer striking the work, the air compressor running, as well as the vacuum pump and the exhaust fan. Oh , and the noise of the forge as well. And the radio, which I sometimes attempt to turn up loud enough to be heard over the other din. Even with double hearing protection; foam earplugs covered by earmuffs, I feel like a ringing bell by the end of the day.

Today I managed to finish the basic fabrication work on the left railing, and did most of the bending of the leaves and vines. Only set my shirt on fire twice in the process. Fortunately, cotton tends to smolder rather than melt and burn Napalm-style as do synthetics. Another day or so of finishing up my welds and grinding, and both railings will be ready for finishing!

The last couple of workdays have been frustrating.  I needed a couple of dozen more leaves to complete the left railing, but as I began forging them on Monday one of the guides for the ram of my air hammer failed.  Repairing it required removing the entire head assembly from the hammer, eating up a full day.  I got back to the leaves this morning, and managed to forge them into groups this afternoon, as well as forge some long tapers that serve as roots and tendrils.  I have only 3 balusters left on the handrail, then I will spend a day or two cleaning up my welds.  I’ll post a picture when the 3 remaining balusters are in place.

Today I finished adding pieces to the right railing, and spent some time bending the leaves and vines into their final positions.  I still will need to clean up my welds, but I decided to do that later, and moved on to working on the left hand railing.

So, I realized that the only way I was going to get the railing to meet up with the wall correctly was to try it again against the column template I used earlier, except that with the railing now assembled, I needed to mount it about 5 feet above my table. I should be done with the assembly of this railing tomorrow, but it still needs work with the torch to bend the leaves into position, and will probably take a full day of grinding to clean it up. I’m going to need to make lots more leaves before beginning the other side; this side must have close to 100 on it.

Cripes…time is flying by!  My goal was (and is) to have the railings done by the beginning of April.  Still possible, but lots left to do.  I have been working on the “leafy” balusters; the photo below shows some of them in place.  After they are all there, I will bend the leaves and vines into their final position.  I’ve found it surprisingly difficult to make a smooth and gradual transition from the plain balusters at the bottom to the organic ones towards the top.  Every baluster requires multiple decisions that sometimes seem to me to take forever to resolve.  I’m getting there, though.  Four more to go to the end.

Friday was a frustrating day. My air hammer suffered from a recurring problem; the vibration of the hammer would loosen the seal between the air cylinder and it’s control valve, allowing the hammer to cycle occasionally without my wanting it to. Not a good situation if my hand happened to be under the hammer at the time. I decided to bite the bullet and correct the underlying problem by removing the control valve from its location at the top of the air cylinder, and relocate it so that it would be somewhat isolated from the vibration of the hammer (the photo below shows the valve in its new location). This change managed to eat up most of my day, and I made virtually no progress on the railings, but my time was well spent, I think.

Saturday went much better. I worked my way through the next 5 balusters in the series, the ones that represent the change from the rigid design at the bottom of the run to the organic forms towards the top. It’s not visible in my pictures, but a couple of the balusters have sprouted leaves. I’ve included a closeup that shows the bottom of a couple of the balusters where they have “roots” that will wrap around the bottom of the railing, though I have yet to bend them.