About a year ago the editor of Metalsmith reached out about doing an article on pewter. There seemed to be an uptick in the creative use of this metal. It sounded like a fun project so I agreed to write an article. I did research, I asked around, I networked. Many talented people were generous with their time. I also did a ton of historical research. At the end of the day I had to cut over half of it out and we still went over the proscribed word count. But I am happy with what remained as a snapshot of this metal and the contemporary attitudes that surround it.
Everybody's Bolos in the news
I have been so pleased at the reception of this exhibition which I co-curated with Brian Fleetwood and Hannah Toussaint. Ashley Callahan wrote a lovely article about the Everybody’s Bolos exhibition that made the cover of Ornament magazine. I also had the pleasure of working with Veronika Muráriková who created a colorful overview of the show for Current Obsession. We even got picked as ‘Required Reading’ for Hyperallergic! The show is up through May 10th at UNT. After that, you will have to wait until January 2025 to see it at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts or July 2025 where the work will be for sale at Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe, New Mexico..
Photograph by Dasha Wright
Forging Community… a year ago
Last March I had the privilege to attend the Austin Forging Competition at Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ Community First! Village. It was about a week before the world closed and life as I know it changed. I drove to a different town. I stayed in a hotel and ate in a restaurant. I think I even hugged people outside my family. Weird. The brief article about the competition that I wrote for Metalsmith Tech came out a few weeks ago. It’s a great reminder of what some seriously talented people can do with three hours.
Wittgenstein Vitrine Review
This summer's Metalsmith Magazine includes my review of "Modern Opulence in Vienna: The Wittgenstein Vittrine" which was acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art. It is a breathtaking piece of silverwork by the Weiner Werkstatte (Vienna Workshops) and it was an absolute pleasure to share some information about it with the world.
Metalsmith Magazine Article
Volume 33 number 3 of Metalsmith magazine just arrived in my mailbox. It contains an article I wrote on the history of women blacksmiths in America, "Forging On." I am grateful to the following people for their help with the project:
Maria Cristalli, Maegan Crowley, Lisa Elias, Roberta Elliot, April Franklin, Mindy Gardner, Lisa Geersten, Alice James, Shawn Lovell, Corrina Sephora Mensoff, Rachel Miller, Darryl Nelson, Lorelei Sims, Dorothy Stiegler, Marsha Trattner, Jill Turman, Andrea Lisch of the Northwest Blacksmithing Association, JoAnn Bentley at ABANA, and Stacy Cantrell for her image research.
