SPRING CONFERENCE 2019
Fe on the Mountain
DATE: April 25-27, 2019
LOCATION: Nevada County Fairgrounds, Grass Valley, CA
ONLINE REGISTRATION: is open till April 20th, after that date register at the conference.
MAIL-IN REGISTRATION FORM: SC2019_registration_form.pdf
CONTACT & GENERAL CHAIRMAN: Dan Perkins, 530/575-0619
SCHEDULE: Schedule_SC2019.pdf
CONFERENCE FEES:
| Conference Fees |
Before April 3, 2019 |
After April 3, 2019 |
| Full Conference |
$170 |
$195 |
| Single Day |
$85 |
$100 |
| Saturday Banquet Dinner Ticket |
$25 |
$30 |
| Banquet Dinner for Children 12 and under |
$12.50 |
$15 |
Members with a Family Membership can register up to two additional family members as conference participants at half price. Individuals registered as guests must be listed on your CBA family membership and be part of the same household. For larger families please contact Herb Upham at 707/823-1251 or secretary@calsmith.org.
Members with Business Membership can sign up unlimited number of business associates at full price.
Members of ABANA or ABANA-affiliated blacksmith organizations who want to attend Spring Conference 2019 need to purchase Event Only Temporary membership prior to registering for the event. Get Event Only Temporary membership.
Non-participating attendees - family members and friends - free.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
We now have a room block established at the
Best Western Gold Country Inn
972 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, California 95945
530-273-1393. Room block: CBA
RV AND CAMPING RESERVATIONS:
Nevada County Fairgrounds
11228 McCourtney Rd.
Grass Valley, CA 95949
Phone: 530-273-6217 (8 am – noon, and 1 – 5 pm, Monday through Friday)
Camping@NevadaCountyFair.com
DESCRIPTION
The conference team has been hard at work for the 2019 spring conference in Grass Valley at the Nevada County Fairgrounds April 25-27. If you all had a blast at the Placerville conference, Grass Valley, will be over the top. Be sure to SAVE THE DATE for Grass Valley. Those lucky enough to attend will enjoy great demonstrators and a wide range of experiences. There are opportunities for all, first time smiths, beginners to the masters as well as varied interests from knife making, tool making to one of a kind art pieces using traditional as well as artistic processes. All this takes place in a park with beautiful tall pines and a very spacious RV area with plenty of camping. The surrounding area has many activities for families so be sure to bring them along!
Victoria Patti will lead an Art in Motion contest along with a how-to demo. This is your chance to make something beautiful with your friends.
Be one of the first to try out the new anvils in the education area which we will be expanding even more. At the Grass Valley conference, you’ll get the opportunity to put into practice some of the techniques seen in the demonstrations. If your goal is to get hands on experience with some great instructors, this is your chance!
The Friday Night Gallery party/slide show has been expanded so all of us can enjoy good company and learn new ideas and concepts from the demonstrators who will be presenting their work.
DEMONSTRATORS
Principal Demonstrators
Martino and Jadran Stenico, Ardrea, Italy
When we were still children, playing in the studio of our father Alessandro Stenico, a well-known sculptor, we had the good luck to play and amuse ourselves with a whole range of materials, experimenting with them and developing our manual dexterity. The studio, which was an Aladdin’s cave for us, contained, among many other items, a forge and a small anvil and so it was that our first contact with iron was as casual and spontaneous as with any toy, then becoming increasingly important to us in the same way that any other game could. Working with iron then was for us initially self-taught but soon we became aware of the need to study carefully, firstly, shapes and forms – our awareness being stimulated by the world around us – and, secondly, the technical aspect which up till that point we had approached intuitively.
Demonstrators
Elijah Burnett
Exploring into form and movement of a contemporary sculpture piece with a small team of strikers. I will be discussing the importance and advantage of working together with other blacksmiths at the anvil. I may also revisit lessons from master Claudio Bottero in forging human forms.
Mike and Cody Chisham
Four topics:
Topic 1: Unconventional Beginners Blacksmithing
Forging items using non-blacksmithing tools. No anvil, common construction type hammers and junkyard materials.
Topic 2: Introduction to Basic Blacksmithing techniques. Forging items utilizing proper blacksmithing techniques, tools and nomenclature.
Topic 3: Heat treating for Dummies. A simple introduction into the concept of heat treating for beginners.
Topic 4: Poor Man’s Repousse. Making tools and how to use them to do simple repousse projects.
Maria Cristalli
My demo will most likely be a project, either a sculpture or a functional piece that I work on throughout the demo slots.
My specific plan is not set yet, but it will probably include texturing, some joinery, and maybe some power hammer tooling.
Maegan Crowley
Maegan will be demonstrating how to achieve fluid forms using hollow materials, showing the steps of free forming pipe /sheet metal into organic forms. There will be a hands on teaching component to the demonstration - details to follow.
Andrew Kyte
Forging three elements that will fit together into one sculpture, plus spending one demo session in the Education area where students can participate in forging one of the elements.
Andrew Meers
This spring Demo will focus on basic knife forging in the hands-on area. We'll go over basic techniques for shaping and hardening as well. Additionally we will cover the basic Japanese inlays as well as incorporating it into the fitup on knife handle furniture.
Heather McLarty/Jack da Silva/Pat Downing
Team Ichthyology is planning to work copper sheet. Jack & Heather will make a fishy Jello mold (sounds yummy, eh?) using die forming, forging and chasing and other techniques. Simultaneously, we’ll make an asymmetrical tray featuring the skeleton of a fish on it using repoussé and chasing. The tray will be serviceable for fishy Jello presentation. 
Once the pieces are formed we’ll hand them over to Pat to work his magic. He’ll tin the Jello mold so it’s usable, then he’ll do his colorful patina thing to make them irresistible. We are planning to bring a couple of extra surprises to include for the auction, so get ready to be amazed and BID!!!
EDUCATION
Education Area: Mark Aspery and Victoria Ritter
Leafing Hammers: This is Plan ‘A’- with me helping the punch and drift side, and Victoria helping under the power hammer(s).. Anyang is promising to bring a new 33# hammer, and I may be able to borrow a second Anyang for the conference.
Leaves: make leaves under the hammer and forge weld them together as another couple of lessons.
Tool making: the last class - probably slot-punch and hammer-eye drift.
Victoria and I will be running a practice session in Weaverville next Spring as both part of the CBA instructor training and the hammer-in - same projects.
John Williams
Toolmaking.
John’s approach to toolmaking and blacksmithing is often organic, with an emphasis on getting down to basic techniques and working toward the least complicated and most efficient approach to solving production problems.
By constantly using the tools which he makes, in various fields, he is able to treat his other areas of work as field tests to continue to refine his designs in an effort to continuously improve not only his products, but his skills as a blacksmith.
Hands-On Interactive Coaching
- Mark Aspery & Victoria Ritter
- John Williiams
Mini workshops - techniques seen in the demonstration projects
- Maegan Crowley - hollow form forging
- Andrew Mears - blade forging
- Andrew Kyte - making a sculptural element
Kids forging area
Beth Holmberg
Contests
GALLERY AND AUCTION
IRON IN THE HAT
VENDORS
TAILGATE SALES
