The end of 2014 saw us embarking on the start of a community project for the Centennial Park Cemetery. A Wisteria design was completed by park curator, Jason Lewis and ABASA member, John Fergus, planned out the commission. The wisteria was to be 2 meters wide and 1 meter high. It would be mounted in the 'Heysen Chapel'. John asked our members to get involved in forging out the smaller parts of the sculpture. Over two forging sessions at our Penfield forge, we had many of our members come along and forge a few small branches.
The main forging of the large branched assembly was undertaken at Johns factory in the northern suburbs in the new year. Again we had a large number of members roll up to lend a hand.
The sculpture was completed and mounted in March and ABASA members were invited down to the ceremony.
The beginning of the year was going to be busy. With a few events and basic blacksmithing courses as well as workshops every Saturday. Our first event was actually over in Melbourne, in Footscray, and was the Waterside Metal Art event for 2015. John, Chris,Jeanette and myself were over for the two day event. A lot of our friends and colleagues were there, either forging, selling and demonstrating and all of the above. It was a great event, and hopefully on again next year.
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| Anvil Surfing |
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| Chris and John demonstrating |
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| The Belgium smiths- regulars at every show. |
Karoonda Fair was on March 27th and 28th. We had a few smiths attend over the two days. I slept in my new car on the Friday night which was the worst night of sleep I can remember. The days were nice though and the crowds were fairly large, We raised a bit of money for the association and had a good time.
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| The troops forging away. |
The beginning of April saw a double header, with the Gumeracha Medieval Event and the Harndorf Art Fair. Andrew Hood made it to both events, while I went to Hahndorf to help set up for the day. I can't speak of Gumeracha, but it wasn't too bad. We had some exposure and a few sales but I think the troops want a better location next year. Hahndorf was not as successful as we had hoped. The crowds were small and barely any funds raised. You have to give these places a go though as they do sound full of promise. Oh well.... That's life...
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| A quiet day had by all. |
May 17th was Birdwood Farm Day. Quiet a few of our members turned up for the main day, with a trio of hard workers camping the night before....brave souls. We rolled up in the morning and Jen got stuck into setting up the trading table. I tried to keep warm until the sun got up a bit. Luckily Brian had a half decent fire going and breakfast and coffee in the planning.
The day turned out to be a winner. We had huge crowds, lots of interest and quite a few sales from the table and fresh off the forge.
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| Three peeps on the table all day.....busy |
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| The boys in action... |
June has been fairly quiet , with the next blacksmith course kicking off and the workshops each Saturday. Our shed building has yet to start, but at least the paperwork is done. Hopefully next report I can post some pics and dialog on the new forge building....Till then Oo-Roo
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