Yesterday, season opener for the Downtown Farmers Market in WaWaWA. About two or three times larger than similar events in LaG City. Not a broad range of produce (yet, I’d guess), but lots of plants and other growables, wine tastings, jewelry and other artisan creations, and made-on-the-spot food (mostly south-of-the-border kind of stuff). But one unusual exhibit/booth caught my eye: Artificer Forge. Here a young man displayed his blacksmithing artistry, with a live forge, anvil, smoke and fire. He started with a blank length of metal, then proceeded, step-by-step, to fashion it into a stylized bottle cap opener. At every stage, he explained the physics and chemistry involved, along with his actions to transform the blank into a special object. He plunged the metal bar into the fiery coals, then pounded and shaped it at the anvil, one bit at a time. After each step, he held the changing object in his hands, walking around the the edge of the crowd to show his progress up close. In about twenty minutes, he had transformed the blank bar into a functional object d’art. Some pics of the process:
You can see more of Benjamin’s work at the Artificer Forge website’s gallery. I was especially taken by his wall-mounted wine racks, one of which is is shown below:
