How I'm Learning to be Excited with Every Success, no Matter How Small

I am an artist. Trying to avoid the fatal poverty which is associated with such an occupation, my path has been winding. Sketch artist, pc gamer, seamstress, sales clerk, silver smith, door to door sales, telemarketer, hot dog vendor, security guard, cashier, Realtor, mother, wife, gardener, small time bitcoin miner, all these thing shaped me but the artist in me wouldn't be stopped.

Being one of the luckiest people in the world, I have a partner who gets me. Who, I in turn, trust and support. When the economy of oil fell, his being a journeyman pipe fitter and welder was no longer an asset in Alberta. We had an opportunity to team up with my sister and start a metal fabrication shop on the family farm. Even though the farm is an hours drive from our condo, we couldn't afford rent anywhere else and decided to pay for gas to travel there and back a few time a week. To help with the costs of this new hobby, I also decided to start a garden out there. Our first success, we had a location.

My Grandfather had build the house my sister now lives in. When she first moved in the house was still being warmed by a coal furnace. She won a new furnace on a radio contest, I'm sure they were tickled pink when they learn that. There were old bucket of coal filled with stones from the remainders of coal being dumped on the drive way from deliveries. They were stored in our shop, left over from the days when it was used in the winter to provide warmth with a beautiful old iron stove.

The shop was being used for storage and was filled to the rafters, who am I kidding, there was stuff stacked in the rafters too! We helped clear it out, it was a week to move into a quarter of the shop. Before we could move in to our half of the shop, we had to bring out pallets to the farm. It was spring and that is the busiest time on the farm. We loaded small engines onto the pallets by hand, the two of us barley able to carry them, and waited for the tractor to take them away. Each one that left was another success.

We needed tools, to start. The shop was filled with treasures that did not belong to us. We inquired about every piece that we could use. While not everything was shared, we were treated with much generosity and have been acquiring what ever else we could though Kijiji, friends, family and the generosity of local businesses. Each tool that we found for less then we could sell it was a success, as was every bit of scrap metal that we acquired for the cost of picking it up.

This was the shop my grandfather had used when I was a child 30 years ago, and the shop was likely built in the age of the model T, based on the size and shape of the grease pit, the age of the wood and certain other design elements. I remember visiting the shop and seeing it as a sacred space of creation, metal being welded and shaped like magic for use on the farm. Each square foot that was uncovered for our, use added to my joy.

Then the beautiful old stove was removed, and my heart sank a little. The treasures from the shop were disappearing. Every time we returned, we found things we had hoped to use, being removed. While we now had more space to work with and small gifts were being added to our collection. My fear of losing the magic held in this old shop was growing. Then my husband decide to build the forge in the former location of the stove, and we even had coal to use in it! He also build a U-bar fork for me, and I made my first set of handles! Everything was starting to work.

Then my husband made a nail header for me, and despite some design flaws which we later discovered, I started my journey with forged metal by attempting to make square nails. While I have not yet made a nail that I'm satisfied with yet, I've learned to bring the metal down to a narrow fine point, and how to swing a hammer, and how to use a cut off. Even still there seem to be more lessons on what not to do at the moment. I was left with a bunch of nails without proper heads.

Researching on the internet and meeting people in the industries, we have been looking at entering, has been exciting but unpaid work. Then we got our first commission from a friend. A dutch oven tripod. We made tools to bend the metal... and broke them, but finally got the metal to bend. My husband banged out a collar and shackle on his second project as a black smith, we attached the three legs and finished it off. My friend showed up the next day and was pleased with the work.

While our goal is to make metal railings, we need to figure out how to bring in a bit of money now. Money is tight, and jobs are scarce in our area. Either our hobby becomes a business or we may have to sell off the shop. We've started doing research on beginner blacksmith projects, I made a small spoon and injured my wrist by pushing too hard to finish it in one go. I went back to the garden that was now devastated by a couple of recent bouts of hail, while I recovered. A few days later my first spoon was accidentally destroyed when I tried to clean it with a wire brush on an angle grinder.

Yesterday I made a coat hanger, which I haven't tried to clean yet. My 7 year old had gotten a hold of the little spikes I had attempted to make into nails and bent the tops of them over. At first I was disappointed as I wanted to take a picture of all of my failed attempts, but my husband showed me that he had used one as a hook already filled with small projects that he had finished that day. I took another one of my new little nail hooks and added it to the beam to hold my almost finished hanger. While we haven't made it yet, I will take that as two small success for an artist.