Today starts another personal holiday. December 9-10-11 are the days I celebrate the anniversary of buying my first anvil and forge. This was back in 1979, so it's been 24 years. Nothing can be more exciting than having one's own workshop, no matter how bare and primitive.
Mine was a 12x12 foot open pole shed, with a metal roof and sides that came half way up on three sides, front open completely. It was dirt floored, of course. Before setting the posts, I'd dug and leveled and smoothed the dirt.
I built a workbench along the back side, stored iron along one other wall, and had my anvil and forge along the third wall. We lived in south DeKalb County at the time, on about an acre of land. My forge was in the back yard, a few feet from the house, with a nice view of our woods. It's great to be standing by a hot fire, looking into cool green woods.
Two women friends had helped me build the shed. Where to find a good anvil and forge that I could afford? I found them in that one three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday, through ads in the Georgia Farmer's Market Bulletin. This is a weekly newspaper sent free to anyone in the state who requests it. Blacksmithing equipment is often listed under "Misc. Supplies." I looked at several anvils, then picked the best. The going rate then was $1 a pound, so I paid $150. The portable forge and hand cranked blower cost another $150. I had a bench vise from Sears, along with a cross peen hammer also from Sears, so I was all set.
I still have the hammer and vise, but the anvil and forge were sold long ago. When I had my current studio built twenty years ago, I bought a new Pendinghaus anvil and a better used forge with an electric blower, along with a great post vise and cone mandrel. Still - I have good memories of that first anvil and forge and workshop. It was a big step for me to equip a space for new work I only dreamed of doing.
Can I do that again? If I did, it would be to build a glass studio - for fusing and slumping glass to incorporate into my iron and mixed media bowls. I came close back about three years ago, but backed off.
Maybe remembering my courage back then, buying my first anvil and forge, will help me build a glass studio. I have all the equipment I need - just lack the building. What happened to that brash thirty-five-year-old Cathy? Did she get wisely cautious? Or foolishly scared?
Let's assume she got foolishly scared, and make a glass studio.
9:52:38 AM 
|
