I don’t want to be writing this blog post. I really don’t. This is both because I detest that there is even a need for me to write it and also because I would much rather be working on my art today. However, my conscience is seriously bothering me for not doing so, leaving me feeling like a morally repugnant being for not at least trying to share what I’ve learned when so many are living in various states of fear and suffering right now. So I humbly apologize to you all for not doing this several days ago when I learned what I’m about to share, and realized I should probably do my part with this blog post.
Continue reading “Recent Studies Reveal Awesomely Effective Treatment for Rampaging Disease”Category: education
These are posts related to my thoughts about education.
A Gathering of Reference Links for my Students
This post is going to be another one of limited interest to most. This past weekend I taught a vessel chasing workshop to a fabulous group of students. During the course of it we were talking about so many items and where to find them that it seemed like it would be a good idea to assemble a post which gathers much of that information together in one place for easy future reference. I expect this post will be useful for all future classes as well and will try to keep it up to date. If you are a metalsmith you might find some of this information useful even if you haven’t taken any of my workshops.
Continue reading “A Gathering of Reference Links for my Students”Building a Better World in your Backyard instead of being angry at bad guys
Final Update (I think). The book is now done and available in print, ebook, and as an audiobook. If you are interested in purchasing a copy you can do so here.
Update. The campaign just ended with phenomenal success! A total of 2768 people supported it with $153,983.05! Thanks to all of you who joined me in helping make it all happen. If you missed out I’ll be sure to make one more update to this post when the book has gone through the final editing processes, been printed, and is available for anyone to purchase. Odds are good I’ll do another blog post too reviewing the book after I’ve got my copy and read the whole thing.
So I’ve known the Kickstarter campaign to get this book printed was coming up for months now. I’m excited to see it finally happen! Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop have been working on this for over a year. I’ve read a few sections they’ve shared in various threads on the Permies.com forums and it looks like it should be an excellent book that is essentially right along the lines of what I’m aiming to do with this blog.
Continue reading “Building a Better World in your Backyard instead of being angry at bad guys”Copper Tongs: a simple beginner project
For those of you metalsmiths reading this, have you noticed how the quality of copper tongs seems to have degraded in the past decade or so. They used to be of good quality with reasonably thick metal. Now, to me anyway, they all seem like flimsy, cheap things made of such thin copper stock. I’ve wondered for a while why we would purchase such things? I mean, aren’t we metalsmiths? Wouldn’t making our own pair be a very basic project, a project suitable for suitable for a beginning student on the first day of class? I’ve never purchased any for my own studio, rather I made a hefty set back when I was in college from some scrap plate copper I had. I actually made a second pair for the university’s studio, which somebody stole rather quickly! I guess that’s one indication they were considered good, probably also a reason why school studios only have crappy ones!
Continue reading “Copper Tongs: a simple beginner project”Has a quiet revolution been happening in the realm of education?
A while back as I was hammering away in the studio on my vessels I was thinking about the whole idea of a free, or really cheap, college education available to everyone that I’ve read about many people desiring. Just how feasible is that? Sure it sounds nice but if you look at the world as a whole interlocking matrix of systems, material, and energy flows one has to recognize there is no “free”. The costs get paid for somewhere. Never the less, wouldn’t it be nice if this was a priority for our culture, something we collectively and willingly put our personal efforts into making happen.
Continue reading “Has a quiet revolution been happening in the realm of education?”