Shameless plug but four of the six swords are still looking for a home, you can find more information and details at, http://michaelssmithy.com/Michaels_Smithy/Ava...e_Now.html
I've gotten a few questions about Ashokan, and to share my experience and what I've learned and taken away. I will not get into every detail, nor subjects that have been asked to be kept confidential. What I did come away with was a whole different approach and level of thinking that I dismissed before. I was able to meet and talk with many great minds that have opened up the door to this craft in an artistic fashion and got my wheels turning in a way that was closed off before. When I was attending college, everyone in my art classes viewed my blacksmith work as something of a craft, and there was no "art" or "fine art" involved. Like a childish fool I believed them and I locked away all the things that didn't have to do with the creation of a sword and accepted it as purely craft. I always felt that there had to be an element of art in the object being created, the moment that a blade wakes from it's slumber and starts to take on a character of its own, there had to be art and magic in that exact moment! But if the world didn't want to see it that way then I would simply have to make due. Now I hear and know that there are others that feel, live and breathe this art of creating as an art form, as one of telling a story or telling a tale, relating to our human psyche, all through the construction of a contemporary object floating through the context of time. I feel new doors opening, new possibilities to explore, and deeper tales to tell then what I have been doing to this date.
While these ideas are not my own, I hope to incorporate them in my work in a meaningful and significant way and find a way to make them unique to the work that I am doing. But words are cheap, back to working and when I feel that these thoughts have manifested in a successful fashion there will be much credit to pay homage to :)
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