Colonial era tavern puzzles I forged as gifts for the two professors I worked with most closely at the University of St Andrews. I learned to make these from an excellent tutorial by Chandler Dickinson of Old School Forge.
Forged from mild steel with a rubix twist and decorated with gilders paste.
One of several keychains I made for myself and my colleagues at the Naval Historical Foundation, designed to be used as a marlinspike for untying knots.
I bought the canvas print from Zachary Sasim and salvaged the wood and silver backing from an antique brush. After assembling the pieces, I stamped the silver with the inscription “TENHO SAUDADES TUAS” around the edge and a set of intials in the central panel.
I forged this maiden's hair pattern welded steel pendant from part of a straight laminate steel billet provided by Iron Wolf Forge and set an old topaz birthstone ring into the center. It is suspended from a strand of purple and green fluorite beads. The swirling patterns in the steel and the gilt star dangling beneath the topaz stone are meant to evoke Van Gogh's starry night.
This chisel engraved steel lion head was initially supposed to be a quillon on the guard of my damascus camp knife, but I inadvertently twisted it off while forging. The wrought iron and copper chain was forged from scraps of metal I found mudlarking around the Fife Coast of Scotland. This was also how I found the hagstone and buckle that I used for the ends of the bracelet.
I also made another bracelet using various gauges of copper wire that incorporated blue sea glass as well as red and white pottery fragments found while mudlarking, in emulation of the colors in the University of St Andrews shield.
Rustoleum painted mild steel on a wooden base.
“How do you know that you're mad? 'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' I suppose so, said Alice. 'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'”
—Lewis Carroll
Forged from steel and a brass bullet casing for the eye.
I forged the body of this skeletal griffin from steel and made the bird skull from cast iron in a pour organized by Hans Wolfe at the Colorado Springs School. The pre-produced lettering reads “CASTELINHO CLAROSCURO”, which roughly translates as "the litte castle of shadow and light". It is backed by butted aluminum chainmail.
Experiments in the lost wax casting process produced in pours at the Colorado Springs School.
Experiments in evaporative styrofoam casting produced in pours at the Colorado Springs School.
I forged this latch for a gate at Green Hill Farm. The design is meant to be evocative of nesting rattlesnakes coiling round one another.
Capiz, also known as windowpane oyster, shell was historically used as an alternative to glass for making windows in Asia and was later adopted in Portuguese colonies. Rather than creating a traditional wood lattice for these panes, I wired them together like fishscales and attached them to a a rigid steel frame at the top forged to look like a sea serpent, with a single turret shell dangling from the bottom as extra decoration.
Forged in five parts and then welded together as part of a blacksmithing class taught by David Norrie. The stem is textured with diagonal blows from the peen of the hammer, lending a pattern reminiscent of snakeskin.
