[Aaron Schnatterly]

My lovely bride Shan-Aan just finished up her latest personal project - the Goddess Dagger.



The piece is inspired, of course, by the Goddess who appears in the "old" religions. It's a beautiful bit of functional art, whether it be for display, letter opener, athame...

Shan-Aan carved an original wax for this piece, molded it, and will be offering it in a limited run of 25 pieces, cast in silicone bronze, hand-finished with a hammer-textured, hammer-hardened blade, and a dark patina. They are etched with her personal mark, and numbered x/25. Overall length is approximately 12.25 inches, and they weigh in at 20 ounces.












These will be up at $350, but she has offered for members of this forum, through 1/1/09, a holiday special at $325, and to sweeten the deal a little bit, I'll cover shipping to the CONUS (and will cover the first $10 to shipping elsewhere). The first three are already sold, but she does have one casting left that can be finished and delivered for the holidays. An additional lot of 3 or 4 waxes will be off to the foundry shortly.

If anyone is unfamiliar with Shan-Aan or her work, here's a little background: She's been Jody Samson's apprentice for the last 5 years or so, and has done some really nice work both with Jody and on her personal projects (some of which can be found here: Shan-Aan's portfolio ).

If anyone wishes to contact Shan-Aan, please do so via PM to me, or give Mike at Albion a call or an email.

Thanks for the interest, everyone! Cheers!

[Greyson Brown]

Aaron,

I was just thinking about sending you an email, so I was really glad to see this update. I remember when Shan-Aan originally announced that the waxes had been finished for this project. This is one of those things that took some work to perfect and $350 is a steal given the effort that I know Shan-Aan put into these. I hope things are going well for you and look forward to seeing these sell out.

I'm going to go ahead and send you that email. Check you inbox sometime soon.

-Grey

[Aaron Schnatterly]

Thanks, Grey!

Shan-Aan is definitely glad these have turned out as she had envisioned when she began this project. She finished up another today, and I finally really got to just hold it for a little while while I was talking to her about something else. It's really nice in the hand - very "warm and welcoming". There is still one available for delivery in time for the holidays, if anyone's interested.




Greyson, things are going well here - busy, but that's typical. We're all generally doing fine... I'll catch you on that email here later today, I hope.

[Jean Thibodeau]

That looks great, it sort of reminds me of some early Egyptian daggers.

Hardened bronze edges are intriguing ? I wonder how sharp one could make one of these although with a letter opener it may not be functionally important I'm still curious as bronze razors where used so one has to be able to get a very fine edge with the right kind of bronze that has also been hammer hardened.

It also looks like something one would have difficulty putting down and enjoy it's feel in the hand.

Also beautiful as just a sculptural object.

[M. Eversberg II]

Ah I wish I could afford one of these!

M.

[Aaron Schnatterly]

Thanks, Jean! Shan-Aan took a good bit of time looking at images of the Goddess, internalized a bit, and just let her hands work. This was the outcome... pretty cool process to watch.

As you say, bronze was used for a lot of tools - including razors. I've played briefly with some bronze to see what hammering does to it... In the case of these pieces, they came back from the foundry pretty hard already - they were left to cool from the casting process, and not really reheated, not quenched (which works the reverse of carbon steels, where quenching hardens spring steel, quenching anneals bronze). The additional hammering makes these blade edges hard. She's ground an edge to them, but it isn't SHARP because it's more of an art piece or a ceremonial piece. I know that it could take a nasty edge, though, with a little burnishing and honing.

As to the feel in-hand... bronze is a neat media to work in. To me, it always seems a bit welcoming. It polishes and burnishes beautifully well - look at any old statue. (The University of Maryland, for example, has a statue of Testudo (a turtle) outside of the library on the main lawn - tradition is for students to rub his nose for luck - he's been there for years, and has quite a personality, mostly from the "love" he's shown by the students and the faculty.) In this case, Shan-Aan has shaped the Goddess' body in such a way that it just settles in everyone's hand that has picked it up. At 20 ounces, it's not HEAVY, but there is enough heft to make you notice - gives some neat presence to the piece. Personally, I really like the feel. The piece is solid, so the balance point is about the blade/body transition, which makes it effortless to hold, too. I'm looking forward to seeing how one of these ages over the years - kind of like the Goddess taking on a life of her own, naturally.



Update on availability - at this point, all of the castings have been sold, and Shan-Aan is moving on getting more waxes out to the foundry. Turnaround is pretty quick, though... and she'll finish them up once they get back. We're kind of at the mercy of the foundry for the timeline, but I'd guess mid Feb for another batch. The holiday offer is still open, though, through 1/1/09 - just let us know, and we'll lock you in.

Happy holidays, everyone!

[Aaron Schnatterly]

[Jean Thibodeau]

I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future and maybe have it coincide better with available funds.

[Aaron Schnatterly]