I love working with Iron, and forging these two knives was very enjoyable. I made them as a single billet and forge welded them with a hammer and anvil. They have Two Hundred Twenty-Four layers.
This Is the first orchid I have ever made, it was a lot of fun and I mounted it in a piece of drift wood.
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Be Shore To check out the previous page
Here is my latest work! Its a custom copper panel for a bar, I had a great time doing this piece. I used different chemicals activated by heat for the patina. Here is a full shot of the kitchen that my piece went into, the kitchen is still not finished, notice the columns an each end, and the black trim. I did this with one of the best cabinet makers in our region! Here is a link to his site www.customwoodworkbyjim.com
From one side to the other it tells a story, it is so different in every spot it keeps you looking, I cant wait to do some more work like this.
Here it is with its first coat of sealer, and getting signed! 
close up shot, I love the blue in it. I wish a photograph could do it some justice, I guess you will have to order one to see what you’ll get.
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These are some butter fly slide pendants I made with enamel. I have made a large variety of slides; here are some Celtic knots that I punch out with many different tiny chisels, as you can see on my Christmas ornament post. I love how clear enamel brings out the copper color!
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I dismantled a real Iris to get my design for the copper Iris seen here! I used the real petals as a template to draw a pattern on the copper sheeting.
For the base I hammered a copper bowl and flipped it over for sturdy support. Like much of my work this piece is made from recycled or found objects.
Copper crafts men in the seventeenth century were known as red smiths due to the color of the metal they worked. Whitesmiths were iron workers who took the extra step of removing the black scale from the worked metal revealing the shiny metal underneath, like cutlery. A black smith produced more utilitarian work where it was unnecessary to finish, like chisels and axes.
The art form of making gates in the old way is known as traditional joinery, that is when all the work is done by hand and there is no modern welding done. There are many different aspects to be achieved.
This first piece is designed as a window grate, window grates have become popular as wall hangings. The twisted center bar has tenons attaching it to the frame, and the frame is lap jointed and riveted. The scroll work is held on by a collar.
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This piece is non traditional, but its more my kind of work. I call it copper river, the mountains are aluminum with a steel frame.
I designed this wall hanging avoiding curves and smooth transitions which is hard for me to do, so for me this is abstract. It has six square corners that all match up within a sixteenth inch of each other, and the half inch bar passes through itself, see if you can get a modern welder to do that!
Roses
I enjoy making Biological sculptures, and my roses are almost a signature for me. Here are some examples!
To make these I cut out the patterns for the petals and hammer the back of them with a special hammer I made, for a soft petal like texture.
I then braze on the stem and leaf, and cool it in water. The heat of the torch is where the color comes from and each piece of copper comes out with a different look.
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This arrangement is in an Iron vase that I made in my blacksmith forge. I made the roses and heated them all together so that their color would be as consistent as possible.
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This next picture of some of my rose buds is a simple example of how different each piece can come out. As you can see there is a lot of variation.
This is the largest rose I produce it is the same size as the type in the vase only it stands on its own stem.
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