Southern Steel's Trusty Steed

World meet ABE the true SSF work horse!



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Playful Experimentation

I read sometime ago about the encouraging of "playful experimentation" specifically with metalworking...this stuck with me and I think I remember reading it in Scharzkopf's or one of Hasluck's books that I fortune to have, anywho it is essential for this to happen. Some of the simplest projects I've happened to do somehow plant a seed for me for a future project harvest! I like to think about this as part of the journey of discovery that allows me a greater appreciation of metalwork in general, because had I not spent my youth building things, nor had I taken great pleasure in grinding the heads off of nails in pops basement, I may not have every tried to work metal. The eventual meeting of imagination and technique comes together, like the Beatle's song RIGHT NOW! I'm so thankful to be getting back to pursuit of all things metalworking, I hope those of you who follow the "plight" of Southern Steel realize that not only do I place great value in the playful experimentation that I do, but I also by proxy follow and gain appreciation by watching the same process get fullfilled in what you do! To our continuation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay here's a few shots of some panels that I've been working on to gain more prowess with copper. I am gaining a newfound freedom working with copper in this method and I am really enjoying pushing my fear of capturing the likeness of people in portrait format. It is a likeness only, but I enjoy the challenge of recreating these likenesses in this manner. I've come to appreciate this challenge, as it's helping me discover just how far you can push a piece of material, before it yields, splits, cracks and fails....through this process I've learned more about myself....thru my failures, I've learned that there is beauty in failures if I but look for it, and failures give me the opportunity to correct and fix things that I wouldn't have normally gotten too....sorry to go out on the limb here philosophically but hey that's what metalworking is all about, at least for me...combining the seemingly unrelated things of life in a definable media. Look out....more to come!

News and Recent Work

Hello to all...it's been sometime since I've been able to catch up here...please accept my apologies for the long time in coming updates. Where to begin....let's see...uhm Southern Steel is now located near my ancestral beginnings....of which I'm very excited to be so close to my family. I'll have to update with several posts here to address each phase of what's going on, but for now enjoy a few shots of some recent copper work and of yours truly making an attempt to live the metalworking dream!