Blacksmith's Shop at Sanctuary Armoury

 For the last year, I have been in discussion with Scott Nickles at his Sanctuary Armoury property about adding improvements to his property - in mind of his desire to create a more interesting historic reservation' for living history groups. Scott, who specializes in combat ready custom armours based on the 1400's (what I would call transitional plate) has been heavily involved with the HEMA community. To that end he has been hosting camping events, and this has expanded to include the SCA's Trillium War event over Canada Day week.

To that end, this year I will be working along with the Sanctuary Armoury team to build and equip a small blacksmith's shop out in the historic area. This will be the first permanent  structure, hopefully of other seasonal use facilities built by the participating groups. 

The blacksmith's shop will be a small, pole / timber framed structure, only 10 x 12 feet in foot print. With a dirt floor (ideal for a forge) and no power or water installed, the scale avoids permit problems. 

Sanctuary Blacksmith - tentative layout

You can see the arrangement of the forge and master anvil is fairly tight. (Worth noting that my own principle forge room at Wareham is roughly 12 x 15 feet, which includes four powered tools and a second propane forge.) 

One major difference is that this forge will feature a great bellows for the air delivery.  Years ago I had been given a quite old (late 1800's?) antique great bellows by my friend Kary Bates. Over the last two months I have been attempting to re-condition the dried out leathers, so to put the unit back into working order. I have been somewhat successful in this - at least to the point that the bellows can deliver a short air blast. (see below) The hope is that with use the leathers will soften a bit more.

One of the features of this layout is that the two side walls have sections at a fixed four feet, then panels hinged at the top which lift up to both permit viewing and create small sun / rain shelters. The wide front doors have a third 4 x 8 panel, also hinged at top, which acts to extend the enclosed space further, the top hinged 'roof' resting on the two open door panels.

 This week I cobbled together a hanging mount and bar for the bellows - and set it into the also antique 'semi portable' cast forge bowl I am re-configuring for this use. 

 The forge may be one of the very awkward transitional 'leaver to blower' units, my guess would be circa later 1800's. These used a pumped bar handle that had a ratchet assembly which converted up and down arm movements into rotation for an encased blower. There is a chance this unit might have a large side mounted hand crank wheel to drive the blower, a slightly later style.) All the lower working gear was missing, only the heavy cast iron bowl on legs was available. At the top of the image you can see the bulge in the dish where the wheel assembly was mounted underneath.

I had a spare lower input to ash trap casting, which I was able to mount with two bolts (the holes only roughly matched) to the bottom of the bowl.  For the air entry I took a piece of 1/8 inch plate and drilled a number of 3/8 holes. My experience with shallow dish forges has proven that encasing the air entry within a circle of 2 inch x 1/4 thick greatly improves the fire performance. I had a large quantity of low density fire brick on hand, which I cut and sculpted to raise the effective floor of the fire. When I deliver and install the unit, I will mount the bricks securely in a clay matrix. Further boxing of the fire is via a set of high density bricks around the sides and back as seen. (Use of the broken brick at the rear is intentional, this allows for one section to be removed when heating longer objects.

I undertook a short test firing of the whole assembly yesterday. Since there was no ventilation inside the main part of the workshop understandably coal smoke was a problem! I started the fire through the initial coking up, and made a very quick needle poker tool. 

I suspect the antique bellows may have a valve problem between the bottom inlet bag and the top output bag. The top was only lofting about the same amount as the bottom was delivering. Together this means the air blast is pulsing with each stroke, not the longer continuous blast normal with a great bellows. This may limit the overall size of the heat zone for larger work. 

Even with the bricks raising the level of the fire, I found that the working bar sat at too steep an angle. (The depth of the cast bowl is about five inches.)  To help flatten the position of a bar, I cut a slot about four inches wide by 2 inches deep into the very front of the bowl (would be at the front right of that image)

The overall result is not quite as effective as I would like. Although I originally learned on a great bellows system, that was a * lot * of years ago, and I will need to remember the subtlety of use. Every air delivery system has it's own quirks. One of the largest draw backs to any human powered system is that it chains you to the forge. 

 

 

'History in the Wind' : Installed at Paisley

    Those who have been following my work for some time are aware that I have both submitted and been selected to contribute pieces for several small town 'sculpture walk' collections over the last decade. 

    This year I was extremely pleased to be one of two pieces selected for the Paisley Street Sculpture Project. This is a new presentation only in it's third year. A collaborative effort with Kelly Probyn-Smith of Elfworks Studios entitled 'Wave Action' had been chosen for the inaugural presentation. 

 

    'History in the Wind' was originally designed for a public artwork competition at Elora in 2017, intended to mark the 150'th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. The concept was to represent the contributions of major groups in the history of our country, portrayed as a series of weather vanes mounted to a central shaft. There is an earlier description of the design and the meaning of the individual elements :

The original 2017 design

The submission for Paisley was similar, but in the creation some modifications were made, and detailed here with images of the completed work.

'History in the Wind' as installed'

   Beneath it all - the Land : The original layout suggested the use of larger granite stone for the lowest element. On more rational consideration, the simple logistics of moving such a huge stone was simply beyond my abilities. This coupled with the difficulties of boring a hole through such a large and hard material. As I did have a big pile of thinner limestone slabs (gathered off locally off the Niagara Escarpment), I decided to use one of these pieces instead. This was set on to the top of the steel plate base mount. The base was then hidden by a number of pieces of differently coloured granite stones and one of quartz, all found as glaciated field stones, intended to represent the Canadian Shield.

    Turtle Island : The original layout had the figure of a turtle to represent the First Nations. On a bit more research, I could not find any reference to those Peoples using directional weather vanes. ('You want to know the weather? Just look up...') I was also having some trouble thinking how to build an elegant and functional element out of the intended wood. Thinking deeper into the concept of 'Turtle Island' I decided to take that more literally, and make a very large flat depiction of a turtle as the base element for the whole sculpture, at 36 x 30 inches. The outline carving of the shell plates are those from the common painted turtle, painted black and outlined in red. The paints used are red and black ocher, mixed with linseed oil. The turtle has head, tail, and feet made of hammered copper, the metal employed before the intervention of Europeans. The body is positioned so it faces north.

 

    The Norse : Although a very brief episode in terms of the overall human occupation of this land, my own long association with Vinland lead me to include this element. There are a number of depictions of D shaped 'weather boards' mounted fixed to ship's masts, as well as surviving artifacts that had been retrofitted as weather vanes and put up on Christian churches. This element is made of brass sheet, with a surface punched depiction of the World Serpent from Norse mythology. The lower text is first in runes and Old Norse 'Kettil made me' (the character name I use in Viking Age living history demonstrations). The second text us in rune like modern English, 'Wareham Forge 2024 (the date in Roman numerals). In place of what would have been weighted ribbons are bronze wires ending in large hand made glass beads.

    Europeans : I had originally chosen to use 1605, Champlain's founding of Port Royal in Nova Scotia, to mark the beginning of the European settlement in Canada, (not withstanding seasonal settlements like in Red Bay Labrador, some 75 years earlier). I considered actually forging this element out of antique wrought iron, but in the end used modern mild steel bars. The numbers are highlighted with a copper coloured paint. Although a modern type, the feather of the arrow is made of cut and slightly twisted galvanized sheet steel. This is the physically heaviest of the elements, and in proportion has the least amount of fin surface.

Lower Canada / Quebec : Rooster shaped weather cocks where a common shape seen in Catholic Quebec, a reference to the 'before the cock crows' reference in the New Testament. This one is made out of sheet copper, the body as two clam shell pieces. Again detailing is rendered by punch work.

Upper Canada / Ontario : In more secular times, roughly a century later, for Ontario the most common figure found on weathervanes was the running horse. This specific outline is based on an object in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum. As the artifact, this is made of tin plate, the material chosen already slightly weathered. 

Into the Modern Age : The top element is a rotor like variation on an anemometer. This made of stainless steel sheet. Individual arms have central rotating disks to create a further impression of wind driven motion. Additionally the disks are covered with holograph film, with the hope this will catch the sun and increase the visual component. 

     

    The finished sculpture is large, including the 4 x 4 foot stone base, standing a closer to ten feet tall. The individual elements vary in size, but all fit into the four foot diameter of the base.

Ken Cormack beside the completed sculpture

    'History in the Wind' is located in downtown Paisley, on central Queen Street North, along the west wall of the Paisley Arena. It will remain in place until mid - later October.

 

    Both the entire sculpture as seen, or any of the individual elements, are also available for purchase, after the public presentation of the work. Overall price has not been calculated yet. Cost of individual elements will vary, and a separate mount will need to be created for any of these purchased individually. (Contact Darrell at the Wareham Forge

    I would especially like to thank Ken Cormack of the Paisley Street Sculpture project for his patient assistance in installing the sculpture. Individual positioning nuts had to be tediously hand threaded down the length of the main supporting spar from the top. (Some of those down as much as 7 1/2 feet of threaded rod!)

'History in the Wind' - past work as prototypes

 The last posting showed my design rough for 'History in the Wind', but was thin on details of what the individual weather vane units would actually look like!

I have always been interested in wind motion objects, and have made a great number of both conventional weather vanes and what I call 'sculptural windbiles' in the past.

For the actual submission to the Paisley Street Sculpture Project, I had included images of past works, most replicas or interpretations of historic objects from the spread of history represented :

3) The Norse - ...Bronze Weather Boards like this element were fixed to the ship’s prow, with weighted ribbons moving to indicate wind direction and speed. 

Copper Weatherboard - one of a set of four, early 1990's

5) Quebec - The most common early Canadian weather vane is the rooster or cock.

Copper Weathercock, lightly sculpted, mid 1990's

6) Upper Canada - As settlement moved westward into what is now Ontario, ... the Horse becoming one of the most popular.

Galvanized sheet steel, mid 1990's

7) Into the Future - ... the spinning cups of the Anemometer, to measure wind speed. 

'La Tene Rotor', stainless steel, 2012

 

For other examples of past work see :

Weathervanes - http://www.warehamforge.ca/WEATHERVANES/wvane.html

Sculptural Windbiles - http://www.warehamforge.ca/DECORATIVE/windbiles/windbiles.html

'History in the Wind' - selected for Paisley Street Sculpture Project

 

" On behalf of the Paisley Artscape Society, thank you so much for your submission for the 2024 edition of the Paisley Street Sculpture Project.

I am pleased to tell you that the Artscape Board chose your submission "History In The Wind" as one of the 2 sculptures to be displayed in Paisley this year.  The Board really appreciated the concept of time as captured by your design and the way it connected to the celebration of Paisley's 150th anniversary as a village."

 

 “History in the Wind’

What is the weather? One of the defining characteristics of Canadians everywhere has been our discussion (often complaints) about the weather. Through Canada’s long history, weather vanes have had symbolic meaning, with specific cultural / regional styles.  
Over the decades, with my connection to museums throughout Canada, weathervanes have been a area of both interest and work. This has included reproductions of specific artifacts, new work inside historic design traditions, and extension into my own ‘windbile’ series of sculptural objects.

‘History in the Wind’, overall, consists of a series of individual elements, representing various historical and cultural traditions, stacked chronologically one above another on a central support. In this the rough form also echoes First Nations ‘totem pole’ memorials.

1) The Land - As Canadians, again almost universally, we are strongly tied to place. Since the Canadian Shield runs under almost all our country - and almost links the whole country side to side, a block of granite forms the base of the sculpture. I have proposed random piece of glacier dragged and smoothed stone - here representing the Land before the advent of humans.
2) First Nations - Obviously the First Nations Peoples inhabited the Land for thousands of years before the recent history of Canada. For at least Eastern Peoples, the Turtle is important in traditions about the creation of the world. Here the figure of Turtle is rendered in a thick slab of simply surface carved wood. This element, although mobile, is not balanced to shift under anything but the most harsh of winds. This is intentional, representing the long duration of First Nation’s traditional beliefs.
3) The Norse - The Scandinavians of the late Viking Age were the first Europeans to travel to our East Coast, although admittedly only with a brief stay. Bronze Weather Boards like this element were fixed to the ship’s prow, with weighted ribbons moving to indicate wind direction and speed. The figure punched into the metal surface is the World Serpent, thought to entwine the World.
4) Early Europeans - The first European voyages to their ‘New World’ start in the early 1500’s, what is really the end of the Medieval period. At this time, the ‘Banner’ design was common. The element was created out of individually hand forged bars, the whole riveted together - the construction method chosen here. The date of 1605 represents the founding Champlain’s original settlement at Port Royal in Nova Scotia.
5) Quebec - The most common early Canadian weather vane is the rooster or cock. With its ties to Christian symbolism, this remained especially true in Quebec. The historic samples range from simple sheet iron cut outs, carved wood, and hammered tin plate and elaborate copper sheet. The Weathercock seen here, executed in copper, is based one from Saint Georges.
6) Upper Canada - As settlement moved westward into what is now Ontario, the taste of the English speaking immigrants effected choice of design, with the Horse becoming one of the most popular. These were often made of tin plate, thin iron sheets with a bright white tin coating (now worn to black with time). The pattern here is loosely based on a number of vanes from Central Ontario.
7) Into the Future - As time progressed, commercial stamped weathervanes, sized as decoration rather than function, started to replace the larger often self made figures. With the shift (in my own life time) of Canada from primarily a rural to primarily urban dwellers, people are increasingly cut off from even being able to feel the wind at all. Increasingly, suburban home owners were able to install simple weather forecasting instruments. This includes the spinning cups of the Anemometer, to measure wind speed. For the top element the form of this functional instrument is warped to create an element as much eye catching as useful. It incorporates six spiral shaped individual arms, each with a inserted moving ball element

Technical Details:

This sculpture was originally designed for the 2017 ‘Canada 150’ competition, but was not selected.

- The installed sculpture will stand roughly 9 feet about the base mount.
- The individual elements all shift with the wind, the widest being the Banner, at roughly 5 feet above ground level and sweeping out roughly a five foot diameter circle (so 2 1/2 feet each direction from the base). Note that this element has the least amount of ‘fin’ so will require the most wind to push it.
- In keeping with the requirement  for long term durability, many of the structural elements will be created from stainless steel. Primarily this relates to the central support, which will be composed of a single length if 3/4 inch diameter threaded rod.  The individual elements are secured via nuts with washers also of stainless. The individual bearings will be of a weather proof type.
- The base flanges and central upright will all be permanently welded together. The remainder of the elements plus their hardware will be threaded onto the upright at the installation site.
 

Asking Price for ‘History in the Wind’ can only be estimated at this point.
This primarily because of the unknown cost of sourcing some of the major components.

I have undertaken considerable work creating individual weather vanes over the years :
http://www.warehamforge.ca/WEATHERVANES/wvane.html

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'How Dense Are You?' now available on Amazon!

 

How Dense Are You?: Recording bloom density from experimental iron smelting. Paperback – Feb. 6 2024 

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Dense-Are-You-experimental/dp/B0CVC9D9F8/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 

by Darrell Markewitz (Author), Neil Peterson (Author)

 

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Key to any understanding of the ancient processes of bloomery iron smelting is assessing the actual iron that was made!

‘How Dense Are You’ charts the density of 30 individual blooms, created by Darrell Markewitz and his team, spanning over 20 years of experimental iron smelting. This work specifically focused on historic Northern European methods during the ‘Dark Ages’.

• The ‘short shaft’ furnace, which was used for the production of blooms, is detailed.
• A variety ores were processed, but a dependable analog from easily available red iron oxide powder is described.
• A measurements from a number of artifact blooms are given for comparison.
• Individual blooms are charted against a total of 8 possible effective variables.
• This 42 page report is richly illustrated with photographs
• Includes web site links and formal citations

In comparison to many academic studies, this volume centres on the practical experience of actually making bloomery iron. It answers the question : Can the skill of modern makers match that of the ancients?

Darrell Markewitz is a professional Artisan Blacksmith, who has been investigating bloomery iron smelting since 2001.
Neil Peterson is a Project Manager in high tech, who has assisted in this experimental archaeology research.

Note : This work written without use of AI

Kindle Edition
$2.68

Available instantly

Paperback
$13.48 

prices in $ CDN / set originally at US $1.99 / US $9.99

 

This volume (45 pages) was created largely as a test for the '7 Day Amazon Publishing Challenge' (*). It is a revised edition of a commentary written in 2022, considerably improved with the addition of more internet links and academic type citations. 

Although now formatted for both e-pub / Kindle and as an 8 1/2 x 11 printed book, my main purpose was learning the mechanics of Kindle Direct Publishing - not retail sales potential. So to that end, I would suggest anyone wishing to support the ongoing experimental work in bloomery iron smelting here actually purchase the e-pub version. You will need to ether have a version of Kindle Reader application (or own a Kindle device), or you can open and read via your main computer internet browser. The advantage of the e-pub (along with the reduced cost) is that all the various internet hot links contained are available on a click.

I had already started on a full book length : '20 Years Before the Blast - Bloomery Iron Smelting' (tentative title), which would cover observations from all the work in that area since 2001. This is being done as a legacy project, again not with expectations of sales income. On completing the 'Challenge' project, in conversation with David Robertson, I occurred to me that I could certainly convert my lecture 'Beginning Blacksmithing or Things I wish someone had told me' into a book version that might be more suited to a popular market.

Worth mentioning that David had undertaken his own first Kindle / Amazon project :

'How To Upscale Your Home Based Craft Business: Boost Your Business To The Next Level'

 

* ) It is perhaps fair that I make some comments about the '7 Day Challenge' here :

At core this is kind of pyramid scheme - so do enter with your eyes open. The process is presented free of charge, and you certainly do get what you paid for! 

The presenters are at core attempting to promote their own business - AIA Publishing. They will consistently push you to sign up for their numerous (and expensive!) workshop programs on marketing, publishing and writing.  They will consistently give glowing examples of individuals who have used these services (in the range of thousands of dollars cost) who then managed to generate incomes from multiple hundreds, even multiple thousands of dollars in sales - every month.

The key here is the promotion of using current Artificial Intelligence mechanisms to 'create' the entire contents. From preparing outlines, 'writing' the contents, to generating the cover graphics. At best I personally found all minimum ethically bankrupt. The hook appears to convince a gullible public to spend $3.99 US on a Kindle version with questionable value and little originality. To be fair they don't actively dissuade participants from original content creation, but more that they constantly present how easy it is to have machines do all the actual work for you instead. The marketing strategy involves generating massive amounts of these publications, so relying on the many trickles from individual offerings eventually combining into " MASSIVE INCOME!! "

One thing to be particularly aware of : All three of us (Kelly as well) who undertook the last Challenge cycle found the mechanics of layout and submission for approval of the Amazon print on demand version of our manuscripts particularly fussy and annoying. All had to work though tedious multiple submissions and revisions to get to a final print ready version. I actually spent more time on revisions than I did actually preparing the text and images contained.

To be fair, they will provide you with references to a number of available on line access points, especially outlining how the Amazon / Kindle Direct Publishing system is set up.  

My overall impression here is that this whole exercise represents yet another example of the 'internet bubble'. Those few who initially realized the potential of a new computer / internet sales venue have made out like bandits. Then the profits have shifted not from working that (new!!) system, but in selling 'experience' with the system to others, who are seduced by the 'get rich quick and easy!!' potential opportunity. But very quickly, that potential market is swamped and diluted, beyond any reasonable capacity. Remember E-bay, Etsy ??

So taken together, the '7 Day Amazon Publishing Challenge' will provide some useful information. I'd highly recommend ignoring all the hype, and most certainly those sales pitches.

Inspiration, Design - and slogging

I have recently negotiated the first architectural / railing project I have had in quite some time. 

The project is for a set of exterior railing sections, attached to a series of large natural limestone slabs which descend down the side of a private home, from street level at the front to the walk out basement level of the back yard. 

View from the lower level, original suggestion of elements

 The individual slabs are quite wide, in the lower section each from 18 - 24 inches wide. The typical lift between steps is 6-7 inches (so the thickness of the slabs as well)

The customers wanted the design of the railing units to echo the lines of a piece of sand blasted glass set into their front door:

After considerable discussion, they decided they wanted a larger number of short sections (total seven at 14 inches each) placed on individual slabs, rather than the two medium length pieces I had originally suggested. There is one two step section for the front steps into the main entrance, plus one longer section at the top part of the rear side, where the stone slab steps are much closer together. That piece has a bend in the middle to match the line of the slabs :

The handrail parts are made from 1 inch heavy walled square tube, which is flattened down on the diagonal to 1/2 tall by 1 1/2 wide, with the ends capped :

sample piece (here with curved end) of the proposed handrail

The uprights are made from 1/4 x 2 inch flat bar. Each is drawn out to a long taper down to 3/8 x 1/2 at the narrow end, over the entire length. This is in the range of 32 - 34 inches long, depending where they fit to the design, some longer elements in the layout for the longest rail section. 

You can see this is basically a clean lined 'Arts and Crafts' style design overall.

Now comes the slogging part.

The overall project requires forging out a total of 45 individual tapered pieces from flat stock. 

After two days of working, I have found it takes me 30 minutes each to forge the tapers. The effective heating cycle allows for forging three pieces at a time. Completing six pieces (so all together with prep and cutting, 3 1/2 hours heavy work) is about what is sustainable for me right now. *

working sequence of forged elements

For my initial test, I started with a piece 42 inches long, drawing the required taper on one end. This to give me an adequate cold end to hang on to. The rough forging is done on the air hammer, with evening and straightening done after by hand. In the image above, that test piece has been cut to the average for the individual elements at 32 inches.

For the production sequence, the starting bars are cut to 52 inches, enough for one taper on each end. After the first taper is completed, this stretches the bar to 62 inches as shown. With two tapers complete, the bar reaches 72 inches total (better to have a bit too much material - than not enough).

group of three pieces in the forge, one end already tapered

 As you might guess, manipulating pieces up to six feet long poses problems in a normally tight working space. Because delays pushed the ability to start this work from the start of June to the start of July, summer heat now becomes an important consideration. For that reason, I have set up my twin burner propane forge at the entrance overhang into the workshop, placing the (considerable!) heat generated outside the building. The air hammer is set up just inside the door that is where that image was shot from, about 10 feet away from the forge.

main workshop floor, looking towards entrance (1)

Hand smoothing out the lumps and evening out is done on the large fixed anvil seen to the right in the image above. Ensuring the lines are straight is being done by forging against the heavy layout table seen in the lower left. (The top is a piece of 4 x 8 foot by 3/8 thick plate which permits this). 

My intent is to produce six finished tapers each working day until I have all these elements complete = a total of 8 days. I fully expect NOT to be able to maintain that pace straight through without a break. *

* Now officially a 'senior', I just 'ain't the man I once was'. Three hours serious forge work, added to the usual additional three plus hours every day for writing and other shop related tasks, is about what I can manage on anything like sustained basis.

1) that image was prepared for a commentary on 'Distancing at the Wareham Forge'. It shows the workshop set up for a typical training course here, with an additional anvil (just left of centre) and extra leg vice (normally set back against the right side near the larger anvil).

'What Lies Beneath' - PSSP 2023

Design Rough - What Lies Beneath

 Paisley Street Sculpture Project - 2023

‘What Lies Beneath’

(note that this is a second submission for this years competition)

What gets left behind, buried under our feet? Does the remnants of our modern industrial activities become future archaeological remains?
A large bundle of now distorted pipes and tubes is glimpsed through the gaps of a broken limestone slab shell.

This work is inspired from my continuing interest in archaeology, especially the fragmentary view of past material cultures via the random preservation and recovery of objects. If there is any message, it is subtle : What we bury today will become how the future will see, and likely mis-understand, about us. A jumbled confusion that may not truly represent our lives and aspirations at all.

Description

Detail - forged pipe bundle (Peterson House)

 

The primary elements are forged from steel pipe, some bent and twisted along their length, flared / flattened / curved at their exposed ends. (For an example, see DM-detail.jpg - a similar technique used for an architectural support.) The pipe elements will be painted, most a dull black, but some darkened blue and green. Additional elements will be made of copper water pipe or galvanized electrical conduit, the ends capped with standard joint fittings. Lengths of small steel round rod and copper (gas line) tubing form occasional spiral wraps.
In total this central core forms a cylinder (hollow inside) about  6 1/2 feet long, about 18 inches in diameter.

The outer shell is a series of random size and shape thin limestone slabs. The stone envisioned is a yellowish grey that contains many fossils. (What exactly is used will depend on local availability.)  Each is held in place by short pieces of threaded rod welded to the core, using randomly forge shaped pieces, tapped to create ‘nuts’.  The placement will create many gaps, through which the central core is visible, with the stone standing clear of the core by roughly 3 - 4 inches on the inside
In total the stone results in about 24 - 30 inch outside diameter.

With the existing cut stone base, the total height will be about 8 feet - an imposing structure.

Technical

The central bundle will be solidly welded together and to an internal support composed of heavy angle, allowing for bolting to the existing bases. The use of pipe allows for visual, without massive physical, weight.
The shaped ‘nuts’ will allow the individual stone pieces to be attached on site, after the core bundle is in place. The threaded rods (two per stone for all but the smallest) would be 3/8 diameter, the holes drilled oversize to ease placement.
Although the overall concept would be better expressed if the steel surfaces were allowed to naturally rust, it was decided to use a protective painted coating (industrial enamel over primer) on all the the steel pieces. This primarily to avoid any possible rust stain damage to the polished stone base blocks. For this reason, all the top open ends of the pipe elements will be sealed, capped or folded downwards (to prevent rain water penetration to the interiors)

Note that this is a design for a new work, likely only to be produced if accepted.


Artist

Darrell Markewitz started his life long work as an artisan blacksmith as a student at Ontario College of Art in the late 1970’s. He founded his Wareham Forge in 1991, shortly after moving to lower Grey County, as his full time operation. Over the decades he has created practical and decorative objects for sale and on commission, ranging from simple candle holders to major architectural installations. Over the last decade, he has created a number of large objects for inclusion in the sculpture projects in Elora, Halliburton and most recently in Paisley.
see : www.warehamforge.ca

'What Dreams They Had' - ESP 2023

 How does Canadian popular culture hope to fix it’s fantasies in place, and what confounds the current imagination?

Materials : industrial mild steel, steel cable, copper / aluminum tube (to be determined), ‘found’ objects (primarily plastic), glass
Construction : primarily fabricated & welded, limited forged elements, some small wind driven moving parts
 

This sculpture superficially takes the form of an Ojibwe Dream Catcher, here a circle four feet in diameter. Quite deliberately, as a refection on Cultural Appropriation, every one of the traditional First Nations concepts behind their objects are rendered incorrectly, specifically to indicate ‘European’ based contemporary Canadian distortions, forms, and concerns. Following the 'Western' concept of ‘everything has to have a function’ the piece also incorporates an equatorial sun dial.

- The scale is enormous, at four feet diameter, where the Ojibwe objects are small enough (3 - 5”) to hang from a baby’s cradle
- The overall layout and all materials are distinctively modern industrial types, where the Ojibwe objects use carefully selected natural materials.
- The external framing is made of braided steel cable.
- The framing uses 12 attachment points, being the 12 Georgian calendar months (not the Ojibwe 13 for the lunar cycle, although there are variations between individual Nations).
- The internal web is made of industrial wire grid material, not strung from flexible lacing as the Ojibwe.
- Half of this is made of perforated stamped sheeting, not actually a web at all.
- The arrangement of the interior is symmetrical and mechanical, not a reflection of a natural spider’s web as in the Ojibwa myth.
- The opening is both placed off centre, and is a geometric star pattern, not the central, perfect, circle, as called for in Ojibwe tradition.
- A large glass rendition of the planet Earth, as viewed from the Moon, and set slightly off centre, replacing  ‘One glass bead for the Creator’ placed in the exact centre (although Ojibwa tradition, this itself is Post Contact - because of the use of glass). Custom hotworked glass bead by Shannon Scollard.
- Four metal ‘spinners’ are placed at the lower frame edge, replacing a single bird’s feather (traditionally owl for girls, eagle for boys) tied to the end of the web lacing, at the centre.
(For a commentary on the background research conducted see: https://warehamforgeblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/what-dreams-they-had-background-research.html)

Specific ‘Dreams’ are represented as caught in the web. (Never depicted in First Nations objects!)
 - A cluster made of of a female and male pair of clothed ‘fashion dolls’, surrounded by plastic dollar signs and coins. This all representing the dream of Wealth and Celebrity.
- An industrial form disk containing a ring of glass tubes - directed inwards to a bundle of four glass bubbles. This a representation of the dream of Fusion Power (and by extension, the dream that somehow Technology can save us from impending Climate Change.
- A toy pick up truck, wrapped in an electrical cord, it’s end hanging down. This representing the compelling dream of the Electric Vehicle, now blunted by the American auto maker’s insistence in producing large sized vehicles (at huge costs).
- A possible fourth representation (applied to the bottom quadrant) would be a plastic doll’s house. This representing the current greed fueled dream of the Monster House as a profit taking scheme.  (Once the framing is created, a decision will be made on including this element against how cluttered the piece may look.)

The equatorial sun dial slants forward from the circular main frame.
- The wide steel band to mark the passing of time is scribed (hot punching) with hours running from 5 AM to 9 PM - sun rise to sun set on the Summer Solstice (June 20). This band would be made from 1/4 thick by 3 inch wide steel. If the exposed top edges (at roughly 24 + inches above ground level) are considered a safety problem, the ends can be capped with a short length of horizontal steel pipe.
- The material for the gnomon rod will be determined by tests of available materials. The ideal would be a rod of coloured glass or plexiglass (this second less susceptible to vandalism). The intent is to mount a small solar powered LED in the upper socket, so providing glowing illumination at night. Should this not prove feasible, the rod will be replaced with copper or brass.
-This whole element is set at the 44 degree angle required for the latitude of Elora.

As the exact position of the installed sculpture is unknown, the base mount needs to be able to be adjustable to account for the E-W alignment required for the sun dial to function. The bottom base is a flat plate welded in place above the low framing (2 inch wide angle) required to allow the sculpture to be bolted to the existing plinth. A second steel plate is welded to the sculpture framing itself. These two plates are flush mounted, secured primarily by a thick central bolt to allow rotation. Additional holes will be pre-drilled in this top plate. Once the correct compass setting is determined, an additional set of holes and securing bolts will be made through the bottom plate. Drilling these 1/4’ diameter holes represents the main work involved in mounting the sculpture.

As with past years this sculpture is presented as a design rough. It is unlikely to be actually constructed unless selected for inclusion.