Day Two.

Forge notes from Day One:
Inspired by my friend David's photos of his recent trip to Japan, and by the small very wonderful horse shaped gifts he brought back for me, I've set my first project sights on Small silver horse charms. Getting started with the wax work today, i discovered that carving tiny horses out of hard purple wax can be difficult. Used a small alcohol fueled wick candle to heat various metal tools to shape a gob of wax into a myriad of everchanging awkward shapes intended to look like a leaping horse. I often times throughout the process re-realized I was doing it all wrong, but had to keep going to discover how to do it right. Said horse looked like a llama for awhile, then a headless dog, but in the end, its kind of horsey. Tommorrow, having hatched a theory, I'll drip wax onto steel sheets to make muscle groups which, after they cool, I will affix to the main body and build up the horse. Perhaps I'll achieve a better result by adding rather than subtracting. When finally I have created a sound horse, which is lovely and in proportion, the wax will be cast in silver and then that silver horse, cast again in wax multiples. The multiples will form a tree, which will be invested in refractory, then the wax inside the refractory will be melted out. Molten silver will be flung into the resulting hollow form, thereby making many silver horses. Horse Charms anyone?

It snowed last night. it very rarely snows in Memphis. The whole town is practically shut down. They do not have salt trucks in Memphis. They do not have sand trucks in Memphis. They do not understand ice and snow. Compared to what we Michiganders are used to, this is nothing, but it has crippled this city. The weather has been blamed on me and I am now responsible for all of the driving tasks because I have experience.