Thursday, June 10, 2004

Another story about Brigid, the Little Giant power hammer Still celebrating bringing home Brigid, my studio power hammer, I'll tell you another story. Back in 1986 I went up to Indiana to pick up the power hammer. Another blacksmith, Steve Wooldridge, had met me at an ABANA conference and offered to rebuild a power hammer for me for a reasonable price. We made our arrangements and my "new" Little Giant power hammer was now ready. Steve loaded her onto my pickup truck with the help of a front end loader. Covered with a tarp, the power hammer was just a big heavy lump back there. I was set to drive home. I stayed overnight at a motel in Kentucky. My room overlooked the parking lot where Brigid lay under the tarp. All night long, I kept waking up. A car out there...noise in the parking lot...maybe someone is stealing my power hammer! In the morning light, I realized how absurd were my fears. What were the chances of someone coming to that motel, that night, interested in a power hammer, equipped to transfer it from my truck to theirs? Hmm...pretty small, actually. Now if I could just remember this story when I wake up in the night and worry about something else, wouldn't that be great. 1:15:02 PM    comment []

Brigid, goddess of blacksmithing Today I celebrate two private holidays: the day I bought Brigid, my power hammer, in 1986, and the day back in 1982 that I changed my legal name. Brigid, as you may know, is the Celtic goddess of blacksmithing. After I came home from teaching at the Campbell Folk School in 1996, I painted Brigid more as she deserved to look. There's a story behind that. At the folk school I taught a small class of blacksmiths "Expressiveness in Iron - Finding Your Own Way With Iron." (Part of this name was copied from the wonderful book by Paulus Berensohn, Finding One's Way With Clay. On the first day of class, I asked each of us to let a name come to mind to use during the whole week there, a name for the artist self in us. We called each other by these names all week. It had a tremendous effect. When I came home, my newly named artist self came with me. Entering the studio, she was very critical. "I won't work here. Clean up. Paint Brigid." She had a long list of demands. I obeyed. Brigid got painted. And my artist self began to work.   1:08:50 PM    comment []