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Finished projects from the workshop
Last weekend, March 3rd & 4th, I was one of the lucky attendees of the NC Black Shell Forming Workshop that took place at Cottonwood Center for the Arts. Once again, Andrea Kennington and Les Bryant returned to Colorado Springs and taught a two day, fun filled, packed with tons-o-information workshop. All of us loved it.
The picture at the top of this post shows all of my projects from the weekend. As many of you know, I am a firm believer of investing in yourself by taking workshops to help me grow as an artist. Let me tell you, this workshop delivered. One of the great things Andrea & Les do in a workshop like this is that they start you out with a project to learn a basic technique and then you build on that with each successive project. At the end of the workshop, you have a nice little bounty of items to refer back to as you continue to work on the techniques.
Last fall, I attended the demo when Les and Andrea were here. Of course, I invested in a number of their tools at that time, knowing they would be returning in March and my plans were to take this workshop. I wanted to experiment with those tools before this workshop and just never managed to do it. However, I think it worked out so much better to go in to this workshop, ready to learn from the pros without any bad habits I may have developed from my experiments. It all came together on Saturday and Sunday.
One of the first things Andrea said to me was “these techniques will take your work to a new level”. The first person who ever said that to me was my dear sister, Lexi Erickson, a number of years ago. Andrea’s statement to me was filled with as much conviction as Lexi’s was and I knew, yes I knew it to be true.
First Project
We started with the hardest project first. This tiny spiculum; a tapered tube that starts out as a flat sheet of metal. It’s made from 26 gauge brass. With each of the projects we did, either Andrea or Les would demonstrate the technique. Then we would proceed to replicate what they had showed us. This little spiculum may not look like much, but it was the foundation for what we would build on for the next two days. We went from making this to learning anticlastic raising to synclastic forming. What a blast! As I work on more of this, I’ll post details about a particular technique in future blogs.
As you can see, we made bracelets, little flowers, and my favorite….leaves.
Copper Leaf
This was my last project of the day on Sunday. I was beaming with excitement as it literally unfolded into this form. You will definitely see things like this finding their way into my future works, along with many of the other things we learned.
There are so many great things about attending a workshop like this. The little tips and tricks the teachers share. The hands on when you just don’t have it figured out and then they revisit it and you have that ah ha moment. The interaction with fellow students, each of us having our learning ups and downs. It’s all part of the comradery.
Latest additions to my tool chest
Quality tools are worthy investments in my opinion. As you can see, I bought a few and that Micro Sinusoidal Stake (the squiggly steel) caught my eye on their last trip. This time I got to ‘test drive’ it and knew I had to have it.
Will my work be going through a change? You bet! I think it is so important for us to continue to grow and learn, develop our work and push it to new levels.
If you ever have a chance to take a class from Andrea and Les, do it! Don’t ponder, don’t fret, don’t debate; just embrace the opportunity. I promise you that you will not regret it. Even though I’ve been under the weather for over a week and was feeling pretty bad this past weekend, I still left that workshop feeling revitalized and invigorated. Definitely inspired!
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
Check out my latest and greatest hammers and forming blocks from NC Black!
This past Sunday, I was able to attend a demo by Andrea Kennington & Les Bryant of NC Black, which took place at Cottonwood Center for the Arts in Colorado Springs.
As many of you know, I love tools. I have wanted to explore some additional metalworking techniques ever since Annie of NC Black did some demos at our Colorado Metalsmithing Conference this past July. Now I have what is considered a starter set of their mini forming tools and I will be practicing….a lot!
The techniques that I will be exploring and learning are called shell forming: anticlastic raising and synclastic metal forming.
Michael Good is probably best know for his anticlastic work. Betty Helen Longhi’s work shows more beautiful examples of the synclastic style. For a good overview on these metal forming techniques, visit these Ganoksin links:
Right now I’m not sure how I will incorporate these techniques in my work. I love learning new things. It is good for me to challenge myself and see how these techniques may be applied to my future works.
Andrea is one of my Facebook friends, so it was great to meet her in person. She shared a number of things about herself and the company she formed, that added to my respect and admiration of her.
I would like to share a bit of Andrea’s story. She apprenticed under Betty Helen Longhi and was a production jeweler for many years. She would teach a few workshops each year. For those workshops, she made the tools the students would need to use and those tools would be part of the student’s kit that they would take home after the workshop. She said she never set out to make hammers. She made a limited number of them each year for the workshops she taught. But demand for those tools increased and she really didn’t have the time, people or facility to produce hammers. That all changed….
When the economy took its toll on a few of her friends (they were laid off), that became the impetus for a partnership to form NC Black. The tool manufacturing company started 31 months ago and today employs around 18 people. Impressive.
There is a direction that many artists in the United States are advocating and that is buy American made products. Andrea is supporting that cause with NC Black, using steel and wood from the US.
Here are a few examples of the work Andrea and Les demonstrated for us.
I shot a few video clips so I can refer back to them as I practice. I wanted to share this one as an example of one of the techniques they demonstrated.
Next March, they will be back in Colorado Springs at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts to teach a workshop and I am ready to sign up. One of the encouraging things Les told us was that one could pick up these techniques in about 4 hours. Now, mastery of them comes with a ton of practice. We all have to start somewhere, right?
I definitely like the quality of their tools. An added bonus for me is knowing the people behind the company. It was a pleasure Andrea and Les! Looking forward to spring 2012 when you return to Colorado Springs. I am an eager student.
Until next time, aspire to be more as an artist and a person.
Mystical Mythical Metalwork 
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